Deniliquin Liberal Party branch members are divided over the actions of Prime Minister Scott Morrison in making a controversial endorsement of Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, in the lead-up to the federal election.
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The Deniliquin Liberals will write to the party’s state executive with claims the “rights of local Liberal Party members in installing the candidate for Farrer” have been by-passed.
Their anger follows a Supreme Court ruling this week which paved the way for the Prime Minister’s preferred candidates to be pre-selected in 12 NSW seats, including Farrer.
Ms Ley was facing a challenge from Deniliquin’s Christian Ellis, which some branch members believe could have been successful.
Ms Ley faced a strong challenge at the 2019 election from independent Kevin Mack, backed by the Voices for Farrer movement, which was particularly critical of her representation for constituents around water policy.
Usually when more than one member of the Liberal Party wants to contest a seat, rank-and-file branch members within the electorate vote on their preferred nominee. However, this process was subverted for the 12 seats in question by a committee comprising Mr Morrison, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, and former federal Liberal Party president Christine McDiven.
Ms Ley, also the Environment Minister, was one of the first to be hand-picked for pre-selection by the committee.
One lifelong member of the Deniliquin Liberal branch, has refuted the claim that members of Farrer branches were turning on Ms Ley, claiming some Liberal branches are being stacked with a far-right faction which intends to oust incumbents and replace them with nominees of far-right ideology.
Deniliquin branch Liberal Party member and long-term supporter of Ms Ley, Shirlee Burge, says from January 2020, almost 20 new members have joined the branch, where previously it was struggling to hold on to 11 members.
“If we had gone to a pre-selection vote, Sussan Ley would have been voted out because we were branch stacked. End of story,” Mrs Burge said.
She claims a “vast majority” of the new members have been recruited by a recently developing far-right faction in Deniliquin – comprising about 17 new members from 19, however admits the practice is difficult to prove.
She says the intervention was “necessary” to ensure the NSW division of the Liberal Party was not ruined, but under normal circumstances she would not have approved the committee taking over the process.
“Whether she (Ms Ley) deserved to be voted out or not, that doesn't matter. It wasn't democratic.”
Mrs Burge said she is willing to lose her membership to put the claims on record, an action which goes against party rules.
She also said there is no process in the party to investigate branch stacking allegations.
This week’s court ruling means Mr Ellis’ efforts to win the preselection are almost certainly over, with the federal election expected to be announced any day, however an appeal to the court decision is expected to be lodged this week.
Mr Ellis, who recently moved to Deniliquin, formerly worked for Nationals Senator Matt Canavan and Liberal Party Minister Mr Perrottet (before he became premier).
Some members of the Deniliquin Liberals believed Mr Ellis had a chance of ousting Ms Ley before the NSW branch committee intervened.
The Pastoral Times understands the Deniliquin branch passed a motion at its most recent members meeting that was critical of Ms Ley in that the Prime Minister’s actions were “accepted by Ms Ley”.
Branch members from both lines have criticised the preselection process for being “undemocratic”, but for different reasons.
The majority vote called for powerful members of the party to adhere to its codes.
“From a basic perspective, I find the judgement pretty alarming that the court has no jurisdiction to act in this,” one anonymous Liberal Deniliquin branch member said of the intervention.
“So literally any member has no remedy if they’re treated unfairly by the party.”
The Pastoral Times understands the motion rejected “the actions of the Prime Minister and the Federal Executive in their unprecedented move to intervene and bypass the preselection process in Liberal Party of NSW - Deniliquin Branch”.
The motion, which reportedly passed 11 to four, determined a letter must be written to the state executive criticising the intervention, including the “poor action taken by the Prime Minister and accepted by Sussan Ley, to bypass the rights of local Liberal Party members in installing the candidate for Farrer”.
The member who moved the motion rescinded it before it was put forward, but another two members supported it, forcing the vote.
A handful of long-term members voted against, including Mrs Burge, who says those members were outnumbered.
The motion also demanded the state executive answer questions “as to why they did not protect the rights of members” and requested free membership to the party - backdated for two years - “given their (members’) democratic rights were denied”.
Mrs Burge, however, believes the undemocratic aspect of the vote was in the alleged branch stacking.
“The original members of the Liberal Party in Deniliquin are highly embarrassed that we have been so rude, ‘A’ to the Prime Minister and ‘B’ to Sussan Ley, because the real story is that it wasn't democratic for us, because we were branch stacked.”
Another Deniliquin branch member, believed to support Mr Ellis, said the process is lacking integrity, and it violated the democratic rights of members.
“What’s the point of having a constitution, if you can’t have judicial advice on someone breaching that constitution?
“The rules apply to the bottom feeders like myself, but if you get to their level obviously the rules don’t apply to you any more,” the branch member said.
Ms Ley has held Farrer for more than 20 years without a preselection challenge.
With little external challenge expected this year, a grassroots process was seen as one of the few opportunities to provide a change of representation in Farrer, if the mood was there.
In 2019 Ms Ley garnered 60.9 per cent of the vote, followed by former Albury mayor and independent Kevin Mack, with 39.1 per cent, marking a historic 9.6 per cent swing in favour of Mr Mack.
Under Liberal Party rules, neither Ms Ley nor Mr Ellis can make comment on the preselection process while it is ongoing.
The party is yet to address the branch stacking allegations publicly.
The Pastoral Times has been unable to confirm the allegations.