Mining magnate Clive Palmer's public feud with senior Liberal figures over the issue of lobbyists has taken centre stage at the party's national conference in Melbourne.

Mr Palmer has condemned the Liberal Party for failing to support a motion put forward by Mr Palmer's Queensland Branch to ban paid lobbyists from being members of the party's executive.

Mr Palmer has been involved in a spat with Federal Liberal Leader Tony Abbott over the role lobbyists play within the party.

But he did not speak on the motion at the Liberal Federal Council meeting yesterday because he did not think it was being debated until today.

Outside the conference, Mr Palmer told journalists he is disappointed with how the meeting is going.

"The resolutions look more like motherhoods: 'Here tick this box and everything will be fine'," he said.

"And hallelujah this looks like a Stalinist operation really where everyone gets up and hails the party leader and, you know, when I was at school in grades two and three I wasn't very good at following the leader."

Mr Palmer said his motion to ban lobbyists from the party's executive was not aimed at any one person, but argued that Liberal Party vice-president Santo Santoro has a conflict.

"The situation is Mr Santoro is a registered lobbyist. He acts at the moment for the Brisbane Port Authority, which is a statutory body in Queensland; that body pays him taxpayers money so he can lobby to their minister on their behalf," he said.

"That's a shocking situation. Ministers have a duty and a responsibility to do that. I think that's wrong."

Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos argued against motion, saying there is no fear of corruption.

"The Liberal Party of 2012 is not the National Party of the 1980s," he said.

'Ancient quarrels'

Liberal Party federal president Alan Stockdale opens the Liberal conference in Melbourne. ( AAP: Julian Smith )

Senator Sinodinos says old feuds in the Queensland party are threatening to take the focus off the Opposition's anti-carbon tax campaign.

"[This is] not the way to deal with these ancient quarrels in this place where we are sending a message of unity and hope to the Australian people on the eve of the carbon tax weekend," he said.

The Liberal conference opened by congratulating the newest Liberal Premier, Queensland's Campbell Newman.

Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane then told delegates the next federal election will determine the direction of the nation for decades.

He says the selection of Liberal candidates is more advanced than at any time in recent years and says the party is ready if there is an early election.

Federal Liberal president Alan Stockdale also emphasised the Coalition's readiness to fight the next election.

He told delegates that Labor is in disarray and the Australian people have lost confidence in the Government's ability to effectively manage anything, especially the carbon tax.

"From Sunday, Labor hangs an anvil around Australians' necks," he said.

"The world's highest carbon tax: at a time the rest of the world is backing away from carbon taxes or where there the price of emissions is a fraction of the Australian Labor tax."

The start of the carbon tax on Sunday is expected to dominate this gathering, which continues into the weekend.

Mr Palmer has yet to confirm if he will follow through on his plan to stand for the LNP against Treasurer Wayne Swan in the Queensland seat of Lilley at the next election.

But he insists that if he does enter Parliament he would cross the floor on issues where he disagrees with party policies like offshore processing of asylum seekers.

"Certainly the party rules don't require that if I didn't agree with Mr Abbott about offshore processing I vote with him like a lamb to the slaughter," he said.

"If I am a liberal I've got the right to vote with my conscience."