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Wednesday 24 August 2022
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‘Turf war’ splits peninsula Liberal groups
Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au
BIRD in hand: Western Port Port Biosphere Foundation CEO Mel Barker with an orange-bellied parrot at Moonlit Sanctuary. Barker says moves to save more animal and bird species from becoming endangered or extinct can start close to home and the foundation is collaborating to achieve that with Moonlit Sanctuary, Pearcedale. “Foundation backs parrot preservation” Page 9
ACCUSATIONS of a takeover by “the Mornington faction of the religious far right” have split sections of the Liberal Party on the Mornington Peninsula. The scheduled annual general meeting of the party’s Dunkley Federal Electoral Conference ended within 10 minutes of its start on Wednesday 27 July, and was rescheduled and held last week by the party’s state secretariat. The former chair of the conference, Mornington Peninsula Shire councillor and Liberal Party member for 10 years, Steve Holland, refused to attend because “the behaviour was so poor the first time around that I didn’t want to witness that again…” Holland said he ended the first AGM because “a small group of unruly members began interjecting and heckling from their seats”. He has now warned that “good people will continue to be driven away from the Liberal Party”. “What is happening within the Liberal Party at the moment can be described as a turf war on a sinking continent,” Holland told The News. “Successive state and federal election results in Victoria have highlighted the dire situation the party is in when it comes to appealing to the electorate.” Stephen Batty, elected chair of the Dunkley conference at last week’s rescheduled AGM, has written to party members saying he has at-
tempted to contact “a small number of disgruntled members” in a bid to discuss their concerns “and move forward as one entity”. A Liberal Party member who has asked not to be identified, said the election results at the second AGM “clearly show it has been taken over by the Mornington faction of the religious far right”. The Liberal insider believes the moves within the local party branches have been made “so the religious right could control the finances of the Dunkley FEC to bolster the Mornington finances to elect Chris Crewther at the coming state election”. The party member “understood” up to $50,000 remained “in the kitty” following the unsuccessful federal campaign of the Liberals’ Dunkley candidate, Sharn Coombes. In his letter to Liberal Party members after being elected to chair the Dunkley conference, Batty invited them to visit Crewther’s campaign office in Main Street, Mornington. “During the next few months, we will be organising some small boardroom luncheons and events involving special guests,” Batty said. Not mentioned in the letter was the cancellation of an event titled A change in direction, a new horizon, originally advertised as being held in Crewther’s Main Street campaign office on Tuesday 23 August. Invitations to the event were sent out by, among others, party activist Ivan Stratov, a Mormon and former Family First candidate. Continued Page 10