"Which they would have known, if anyone had bothered to speak to him," one source told Fairfax Media. Cairns MP Rob Pyne has quit the Labor Party and will sit on the crossbench in Queensland's hung parliament. Credit:Fairfax Media "But they didn't. They thought they had calmed him down when he started to make noises about leaving in January and then they just left him to his own devices again. So of course we read about it in the f**king media, because we're not talking to him." And for that several Labor figures blamed Ms Palaszczuk's chief of staff, Angela MacDonagh. "Ask the Premier's office when was the last time the chief of staff, or anyone, picked up the phone to speak to Pyne. They won't be able to tell you," another source said.

"MacDonagh should have been calling him every second day, checking up seeing how things were going to address his grievances and concerns, but it is obvious that wasn't the case, she has done nothing in terms of talking to the caucus to see how they are going. "She knew there was a problem, she knew, everyone knew, this was in the public arena - he said things in parliament, he was saying things outside of the parliament and that office, under Angela, did nothing. "It's the job of the chief of staff to address back bencher concerns, to make sure that is all running smoothly, but this situation says volumes about the dysfunction in that office. Because they didn't know. "They didn't know, in a hung parliament, how close they were to losing another MP. Even though he had all but written it in the sky for them. "It's a f**king joke."

Others believed "inexperience and bravado" got in the way. "He's been mis-managed from the beginning," another source said. "They should have been talking to him. Listened when he started raising concerns with local government, because he's not all wrong there. But instead, they acted like they had a majority, that one disgruntled MP wouldn't matter, which is just what Newman did. "Tough talk doesn't work when you're holding on to power by a whisper and a prayer. It didn't work for Newman either, but at least he had a majority. "We're now in a position where if someone else who feels slighted, someone like Jo-Ann Miller, who also hasn't been treated the best, feels having their revenge, well, they can bring the whole house of cards crashing down.

"And they could have stopped it. We didn't have to be in this position. This train wreck could have been stopped at several points along the way." MP Rob Pyne's resignation letter: in full ​Mr Pyne's move to the crossbench, where he joins fellow former Labor MP Billy Gordon, who quit the party ahead of his sacking for "dishonesty" in March last year, brings the LNP's numbers on par with the government, creating a situation some within the government believe has made it too "untenable" to continue. "I think we will have to go down the election path, I don't think we will have a choice," one source said. "It's just going to be too difficult. Negotiating legislation...it's going to be a nightmare. We are better rolling the dice and seeing what happens at the polls. But she [the Premier] won't do it. We'll all be thinking it, but she won't do it."

Ms Palaszczuk's office responded to the news with a tweet, hours after it had broken, simply saying "Business as usual for the Govt. Nothing will take my focus off creating jobs for Qlders". The LNP was quicker off the mark, with Lawrence Springborg releasing a statement saying Mr Pyne's decision "shows the utter depth of internal frustration with the 'frozen at the wheel' Palaszczuk Government". "The Labor Government still holds power in Queensland but it shows our great state is stifled on a daily basis by an ineffective government led by Annastacia Palaszczuk," Mr Springborg said. "If anything, the decision by Rob Pyne shows the ineffective Palaszczuk Labor Government has become even more unstable.

"...Mr Pyne has acted on what the rest of Queensland has seen for the past year, a Labor Government with no plan and no idea what it's doing." Mr Springborg faces losing two members of his own team to Canberra, with both Jeff Seeney and John McVeigh seeking pre-selection for federal seats. "We should just use that as the trigger," one Labor source said. "They have 42. We have 42. We didn't have to be here, but here we are. So we should just rip off the band-aid and let the people decide."

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Ms Palaszczuk defended her office's dealings with Mr Pyne. "I have had a very good, constructive working relationship with Rob Pyne," she said. "My office has had a very good working relationship with Rob Pyne, as has the caucus members. "Obviously I am disappointed with Rob's decision and I'm quite sure there's going to be a lot of members in the Cairns community that are also disappointed with his decision to leave the Labor party."

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