Brisbane councillor Jane Prentice
may make a play at federal politics.
High-ranking Brisbane councillor Jane Prentice remained tight-lipped last night about whether she would seek LNP pre-selection for the Federal seat of Ryan.
Sitting MP Michael Johnson was yesterday expelled from the LNP and declared he would run as an independent.
Last night, Cr Prentice declined to give an indication of whether she would seek the federal seat, saying she was in meetings until 10.30pm.
But her long-term sparring partner, Labor councillor David Hinchliffe, predicted she would take the jump from being a "big fish in small pond to a little minnow in Lake Burley Griffin".
"She has always had federal aspirations," he said.
"Jane has always been part of the western suburbs Liberal faction, that has been fighting the [Santo] Santoro/[Michael] Caltabiano faction for the past decade.
"And Johnson has genuinely been associated with the Santoro/Caltabiano faction.
"At times the factions have been fluid, but the knives are well and truly out in the green and leafy western suburbs."
The LNP is expected to endorse either the experienced Cr Prentice or Seb Monsour, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's brother-in-law.
Mr Monsour in 2004 became embroiled in a "late night" entry to Brisbane City Council's chambers to stop the outgoing Labor Party allegedly shredding sensitive documents.
In 2006, he was forced to change his his biography as the Liberal candidate for the sate seat of Ashgrove, when he admitted to lying when he said he had played rugby union for the Queensland Reds.
Cr Prentice has been a councillor since March 2000 and before that was the managing director of her own conference management company.
The federal seat of Ryan spreads from Indooroopilly through Brisbane's western suburbs including Enoggera, Kenmore and Brookfield.
It will be targeted by Labor at this year's federal election, after a redistribution reduced its margin from 3.8 to 1.2 per cent.
While Mr Johnson running as an independent could split the Liberal vote, his preferences would likely return to the LNP.
Cr Prentice is well known in the electorate, representing Brisbane City Council on the Brisbane West Chamber of Commerce and on a string of community groups including the Red Cross, the Friends of Sherwood Arboretum, the Indooroopilly History Group, Multicultural Development Association and the United Nations Development Fund for Women.
At the 2008 Brisbane City Council election, she received 71.02 per cent of the two-party preferred vote in her Walter Taylor ward.
