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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-06-23 Daily Xml
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South Australian Liberal Party

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:45): I am speaking today about the all-out factional war being waged in the South Australian Liberal Party. Media reporting in recent weeks, particularly in InDaily, has shone a light on the efforts by the Liberal hard right to recruit hundreds of Pentecostal churchgoers into party branches. The wets-controlled state executive, in response, has taken unprecedented steps to block 150 members and demand explanations from a further 400 members, I am advised.

That, in turn, has led to a strong response from the hard right, forcing the moderates in the Liberal Party to back down on some of their demands and to cease allowing any new members at all while an independent investigation takes place. That is all very entertaining for those in the Liberal Party who get off on internal power plays, but the Liberal civil war poses a very real threat to South Australians and to good governance, and it is a direct challenge to the leadership of and the decisions made by the Premier of this state.

The public story is that the hard right are outraged that the Premier and the Deputy Premier would allow matters of social conscience to even be debated in parliament. In reality, that is just a convenient fig leaf of an explanation. This is really about personal ambition and about factional politics just for the sake of it. You could almost forgive them if this was actually about ideas. But no, this squalid fight is about a narrow factional advantage for members of the Liberal Party parliamentary caucus.

Of course, the hard right are still bagging the Marshall government in the media to justify this spat. In a radio interview with the ABC, right faction ringleader Senator Alex Antic declared that there was 'an extraordinary frustration out there in the community about the trajectory of state parliament', going on to say that, 'I don't think we have ever seen a more egregious agenda of social policy reform.'

This internal division is threatening Premier Marshall's leadership and is dividing his party room. The faction associated with some members of this chamber, such as the Hon. Terry Stephens, the Hon. Nicola Centofanti and the Hon. Dennis Hood, and former senator Corey Bernardi is at war with the position of the moderates, or so-called moderates, in the Liberal Party, the moderates being the leaders of the party they are raging against: the Premier, the Deputy Premier, the Minister for Human Services and so many others.

It would seem that the hard right is in the ascendancy in the Liberal Party in South Australia, recruiting those hundreds of members into the Liberal Party under the banner of 'Believe in blue'. In a takeover of the Liberal branch in the marginal seat of Elder, Field of Dreams Pastor Belinda Crawford-Marshall reportedly rolled the incumbent branch president.

On the weekend, the Badcoe branch also saw the conservatives marching in, defeating the moderates for the position of branch president. I am advised that the new Badcoe branch president is a relative of Mr Christopher Brohier, the South Australian director of the Australian Christian Lobby. Yes, the very same Australian Christian Lobby that railed so hard against marriage equality in this country and is now taking up the fight against health care for trans kids. These are the influences that are taking over the Liberal Party in this state in the lead-up to the next election.

Lest anyone think these views will not make a difference to the policies and views of the Marshall government, take note of comments made by the Minister for Environment and Water at a recent gathering at Southland Church. He said, 'This idea of separation of church and state, forget it.' This kind of hard right, deeply conservative standpoint is out of touch with the community and is out of touch with the vast majority of people of faith too.

Those behind the Liberal Party branch stacking are misleading the very people they are recruiting. They are telling them this is about a fight for ideas and a fight for policies, but that is just an excuse. It is actually a fight for the career prospects of individual members of the Liberal Party who have been sidelined in recent years. This is a product of a grubby personal vendetta going back decades, and career ambition for new members, like the much-vaunted ambition of the environment minister to replace the Hon. Mr Lucas as Treasurer of the government.

I know that, as we approach this next election, voters who might have supported the party of the Hon. Michelle Lensink and the Attorney-General will be thinking twice about their vote, because while Senator Antic might once have been a lone voice in the party, it is clear his faction is gathering steam and building its numbers to destabilise the leadership of Premier Steven Marshall.

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