Former Liberal minister Ian Macfarlane faces two hurdles in his fight to defect to the Nationals and re-enter cabinet.
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As a senior Turnbull government minister joined the attacks on the member for Groom's shock decision to defect to the junior Coalition partner, the new president of the Queensland Liberal National Party, Gary Spence, said Mr Macfarlane would have to convince rank and file members and the party's state executive to approve the switch.
Mr Spence said party members in the seat of Groom would be asked to sign off on the move at a meeting in Toowoomba on Saturday.
If rank and file members endorse the change, two days later it will be put to the party's state executive. However, the state executive could reject Mr Macfarlane's attempt to force his way back into the ministry.
"The process I explained to Ian was that we needed him to get the party's approval," Mr Spence told Fairfax Media.
"I think the federal divisional council deserve a right to consider the matter."
Mr Spence said the state executive would not meet if the federal divisional council in Groom rejected a motion to allow Mr Macfarlane to defect.
On Sunday, Attorney-General and Queensland senator George Brandis joined colleagues in attacking Mr Macfarlane's decision, which left the Turnbull government in disarray.
Senator Brandis said his colleague's attempt to "game the system" had left a "very bad taste in people's mouths".
He said no "backbencher" should be able to force a cabinet reshuffle on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull by swapping parties.
"I don't believe that Mr Macfarlane should have done what he did," Senator Brandis said.
"I think it's left a very bad taste in people's mouths, the way in which this has been done."
Another Queensland frontbencher, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, told Sky News' Australian Agenda it had been "a difficult week" for the government, which was also under pressure from Labor over Mal Brough's involvement in the Peter Slipper affair.
He said Mr Macfarlane's preselection in Groom had been "ratified on the basis he was sitting in the Liberal Party room" and it was by no means a "fait accompli" that he could transfer to the Nationals.
"Potentially, other people would have sought preselection if they knew that it was going to be a National Party seat or an LNP seat resulting in that person sitting in the National Party party room," Mr Dutton said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Mr Macfarlane's defection was "the first visible fault line" in the Turnbull government and, in some ways, "an even bigger crisis" for the Prime Minister than the controversy over his Special Minister of State, Mr Brough.
"Sooner or later, Malcolm Turnbull will have to make a decision about Mal Brough. This guy's teetering on the edge," Mr Shorten said in an interview for the ABC's Insiders on Sunday.
"But the Ian Macfarlane issue goes to deeper disunity within the Liberal Party."
Mr Macfarlane's decision has caused a split in Queensland. It is understood the LNP's immediate past president, Bruce McIver, opposes the move to the Nationals.
Mr Turnbull would not comment on Sunday. He cancelled an event for Monday where he was due to appear with Mr Macfarlane to launch the Toowoomba bypass.
