By GREG ANSLEY
CANBERRA - Australian Prime Minister John Howard was yesterday fighting growing rebellion in his ranks as the full implications of the weekend's Labor landslide in Queensland became apparent.
Despite a rising clamour for key policy changes from an increasingly nervous backbench and near-panic in the Coalition's junior partner, the National Party, Howard is refusing to buckle on the issues that inflamed voters the most in both Queensland and Western Australia.
The federal National Party will meet in the New South Wales country town of Corowa tonight in what will almost certainly be a passionate confrontation between its leadership and MPs who believe the party is on the verge of demolition.
The Nationals hold five federal seats in Queensland - where Labor won about two-thirds of the seats in the state Parliament, the Nationals' representation was halved, and the Liberals were cut to almost the same number as Pauline Hanson's One Nation party.
Only two of the National seats are considered safe, and the party's leader in the Senate, Senator Ron Boswell, risks losing his seat in a federal election this year that could see Hanson move to the Upper House instead.
The size of the anti-Coalition swing in Queensland alone threatens Howard's survival, as Labor needs just seven more seats to put Opposition Leader Kim Beazley in power.
The Government also faces renewed and growing support for the Greens - shown in both Queensland and the earlier Labor victory in Western Australia - which if repeated nationally could alter the balance of power in the Senate.
At present, the Democrats decide the outcome of legislation in the Upper House, but could either lose or be forced to share this position with the Greens.
Although specific state issues were important in both WA and Queensland, there has been a clear protest vote against key Government policies, including GST-linked increases in petrol prices, the complexity of small business forms required by GST, competition policy and dairy deregulation.
The resurgence of One Nation - capitalising on such issues - and its policy of directing preference votes away from sitting MPs has further thrown the Government into panic.
Hanson's tactic pushed Labor into power in WA and, while not as important in Queensland, One Nation gained sufficient support to win three state seats and to win about 20 per cent of the reduced number of seats it contested.
Howard yesterday played down the significance of One Nation and its preferences, saying he would not back down on petrol excise or other key issues, and laid blame for the Queensland landslide with his state colleagues.
He said the Coalition had been heading for a train wreck in Queensland for months before the election occurred.
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