Some Liberals say that, given the LNP did not make significant inroads in Brisbane at the state election on Saturday, flying the LNP flag in the metropolitan area at the next federal poll would be disastrous.
They blame the perception that the party is dominated by the Nationals for their lack of appeal in the city and say they want to run as Liberals.
"You cannot have a fragmented federal campaign," said one federal MP from Queensland. "The idea that the federal Coalition and the Liberal and National parties should campaign as something else in Queensland at the next federal election is crazy."
While Queensland Liberals would not be quoted, Victorian Liberal senator Mitch Fifield said: "The Queensland merger was entirely for state purposes and the understanding of the federal Coalition MPs at the time of the merger was that federal Liberals would continue to sit as Liberals and campaign as Liberals, and Queensland federal Nationals would continue to sit and campaign as Nationals."
But federal National sources said the issue of whom federal candidates would represent had not been resolved at the time of the merger. With the LNP now a reality in Queensland, there was an argument that federal candidates should be campaigning as LNP representatives at the next election.
Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce rounded on the Liberal critics yesterday. "We couldn't give a flying stuff about some partisan, parochial fight that is oozing out between a few Liberals," he told The Australian.
"Apparently we have two states here -- one called Brisbane and one called the rest of Queensland. This is a worthless piece of logic that will lead you to a political wasteland.
"At the next election I will be campaigning as a senator to represent the people of Queensland and I don't care what name it is under. I will be campaigning as LNP, sitting with the Nationals in Canberra.
"But if they keep going down this path, we won't have to worry about winning a federal election."
Senator Fifield said it was too late to unscramble the LNP. "I do wonder if we might have actually gone better had we had two separate parties but we'll never know. The merger is a reality ... but we've got to make it work.
"What needs to happen now is that the LNP needs to complete its transition to becoming the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia."
Nationals and LNP sources ridiculed this view, saying that with many more seats outside Brisbane than in, it would condemn the conservatives to permanent opposition in the state.
As well, they argue that the southeast of the state produced the largest gain in seats at Saturday's election.
A recent meeting of the Liberal Party's federal council, that included LNP representatives, made clear that the federal campaign committee, chaired by the Liberals' federal director Brian Loughnane, would be in charge of campaigning at the next federal election, including in Queensland.
But candidates for federal seats will be preselected by the LNP. If they win, they have the choice of joining Liberal or National party meetings in Canberra. Some argue they should make clear their intentions before the poll.
The Senate ticket for Queensland has been decided already -- a joint ticket under the LNP name. But many voters may not notice the difference, with most previous elections contested under a joint ticket between the Liberals and Nationals.
This leaves the political branding for the lower house as the issue to be resolved. But the Senate ticket may also need to be revisited if Senator Joyce contests a House of Representatives seat in preparation for a run for the federal National leadership.