Branchless Liberal Member Is Out On A Limb
The Age
Wednesday March 26, 2008
THE federal Liberal member blocked by conservative forces from joining his local party branch was yesterday invited to join other branches in his area - including the Cronulla women's branch - as the NSW Liberal Party scrambled to recover from its latest embarrassment.
Players in the right faction of the NSW Liberal Party distanced themselves from the Port Hacking branch after The Sydney Morning Herald revealed it had rejected a membership application by the federal member for Cook, Scott Morrison. Marie Ficarra, a member of the NSW upper house and a conservative member of the Liberal conference that takes in the Port Hacking branch, said she was just as surprised as Mr Morrison that he had been knocked back for membership. "Scott Morrison is a good member. He was pre-selected by us, the conservatives put him there and he would be welcome in most of the branches in the Cook conference. He's a good, Christian family man," Ms Ficarra said. Mr Morrison had been "offered a place, together with his wife, in the Cronulla women's branch of the party", Ms Ficarra said, adding the branch was no longer exclusively female and was changing its name. Mr Morrison was pre-selected for the seat of Cook after the original choice of the right faction, Michael Towke, was dumped following revelations he had embellished his CV and accusations of branch stacking. The latest embarrassment for the NSW Liberals comes after NSW police confirmed at the weekend they had begun legal proceedings against five men associated with the Liberal Party accused of distributing fake leaflets painting the Labor Party as pro-Islamic extremism. The president of the NSW Liberal Party, Geoff Selig, said Mr Morrison's rejection was "highly embarrassing for the party".Federal Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, a conservative, said the rejection was "an abuse of the party's rules relating to not approving members". The Port Hacking branch did not reflect the conservative faction, which had supported Mr Morrison, she said. But a source from the right faction who did not want to be named said Mr Morrison's rejection may have been the result of his failure to build relationships with local branches already angry over Mr Towke's dumping. Mr Morrison said: "I'm not going to let this distract me from the constituents. Other people can focus on internal politics. My focus is where it should be - on the community."
© 2008 The Age
