Conservative voters can send a message to the Liberal National Party at the next election after it yesterday failed to hold sitting Groom MP John McVeigh to account for voting against LNP policy.

The conservative set-back in Groom came as senior conservative Liberals such as Turnbull cabinet minister Michael Sukkar and former speaker Bronwyn Bishop said the Liberal party was being “hollowed” out by “termites ” in the party.

Yesterday’s Groom preselection in Toowoomba was typical of the way these forces routinely undermined the party’s conservative policies.

Respected Toowoomba businessman Isaac Moody’s challenge failed after party heavyweights circled the wagons to shore-up Mr McVeigh’s pre-selection.

Mr Moody took the unusual step of challenging a Turnbull cabinet minister on the basis of “trust” because Mr McVeigh voted against the party’s policy on marriage in the wake of the plebiscite last year.

Yesterday’s pre-selection showed yet again that ‘conservatives’ in the LNP can’t be trusted to uphold their own conservative policies, let alone fight for them.

Mr McVeigh’s breach of trust with the party’s policy was rewarded by an endorsement from fellow Turnbull Cabinet Minister Peter Dutton who travelled to Toowoomba yesterday to be present in the room while members voted.

Yesterday’s result again calls into question the LNP’s commitment to conservative values.

The good news is there is a better way. Australian Conservatives will run a principled candidate in Groom at the next election and will be urging voters to send a message to the LNP by electing an Australian Conservatives Senator for Queensland.

In the same way the Greens have never stopped Labor winning government, Australian Conservatives won’t sabotage the coalition’s chances of electoral victory.

But by sending Australian Conservative Senators to Canberra, voters can help ensure conservative governments return to common sense conservative values.