Australian Politics Forum

Eric Abetz ditches young Liberal dinner as meeting descends into farce

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Court action could be on the cards after "disgusting" and "unconstitutional" tactics were used to derail the annual meeting of a shadowy organisation for young Liberals.

About 100 delegates met in Hobart last week for a conference of the Australian Liberal Students' Federation, a peak body for dozens of campus Liberal clubs from around the country.

But the love-in turned sour on the final day when some attendees attempted to enter the meeting, only to be told they had not registered in time and would be ineligible to vote for the new executive.

Security guards, whom organisers claimed belonged to the University of Tasmania but were in a different uniform, blocked delegates from entering the venue.

So toxic were the proceedings that Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz refused to give the keynote speech at that evening's gala dinner, with a source describing him as "thoroughly unimpressed". Turnbull government ministers, senators and MPs hit the phones on Friday afternoon to find out what had happened.

Tim Andrews, a former ALSF president who attended the conference, described the events on his Facebook page. "Extraordinary scenes at ALSF Federal Council, where large swathes (sic) of eligible voting delegates are being unconstitutionally, physically prevented from entering the AGM by hired private security," he wrote. "Quite unbelievable."

Fairfax Media has since spoken with nearly a dozen sources who confirmed that account. They placed the incident in a context of fracturing relations between the moderates and the centre-right faction in NSW, where wannabe powerbrokers hone their scheming skills and federal MPs such as Alex Hawke maintain influence over the party's youth wing using lieutenants on their staff.

Among those bouncing delegates at the door were Jack Morgan, an adviser to Mr Hawke, and Michael Sabljak, staffer to former speaker Tony Smith. Also involved were Jean-Luc Corelli, a former staffer to conservative MP Michael Sukkar, and Ananija Ananievski, who was forced to quit Kevin Andrews' office earlier this year following allegations of branch-stacking.

(continued)

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Trouble arose when the incumbent all-male executive bloc, aware that its grip on control was under siege, quietly closed registration for the meeting a week in advance. On Friday, about 15 factional enemies who had not registered were turned away at the door, assisted by security guards. They were joined by another 60 youngsters who broke away from the meeting and held their own rival meeting, electing a rival executive led by Queenslander Jack McGuire.

That group is now considering its options, including legal action, a complaint to federal Liberal Party director Tony Nutt or creating their own breakaway organisation. Meanwhile, the old executive bloc and its supporters elected Mr Morgan as their president. He declined to answer questions.

John Slater, a Queensland Young Liberal/National and ally of Mr McGuire, said he was saddened on behalf of the first-timers he brought to the conference.

"Their general impression - and mine - was that these guys spend more time and energy fighting each other than fighting for the cause," he said. "Any lay observer would look at this and it would confirm all their worst suspicions about the Young Liberal movement . . . and all those stereotypes about Young Liberals being power-hungry, ruthless and immoral."

Other than acting as a repository for infighting, the ALSF's activities are fairly opaque. It has no formal relationship with the Liberal Party - rather, it is affiliated with dozens of university Liberal clubs from which it raises funds. In turn, members campaign on issues such as student unionism, fee deregulation and political correctness, and benefit from networking opportunities with MPs.

But recent examples of the outfit's work are few and far between. It previously published a magazine called Protégé and continues to host a Canberra party in the week of the federal budget.

"There's been a feeling that it really hasn't achieved much and has been failing," one former executive told Fairfax Media. "It's extremely disappointing to see an organisation that has so much potential go so far down the toilet. The Liberal movement is supposed to be about ideas of democracy. Rather than accept the will of the people, they've used tactics better suited to an African dictatorship than modern Australia."

Senator Abetz attended the conference earlier in the week and was invited to give keynote address on the final night. He declined, having already been made aware of the factional antics organisers were plotting. In his place they arranged Catholic Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous, who was last year subject to an anti-discrimination complaint over a booklet opposing same-sex marriage that was distributed at schools (the complaint was later withdrawn).

Also attending the gala dinner as special guests were David van Gend, head of the controversial Australian Marriage Forum, and Peter Westmore, president of Catholic lobby group the National Civic Council, founded by B.A. Santamaria.

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Trouble arose when the incumbent all-male executive bloc, aware that its grip on control was under siege, quietly closed registration for the meeting a week in advance.

Their parents must be so proud. The next generation of conservatism is as corrupt as the previous.

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"Their general impression - and mine - was that these guys spend more time and energy fighting each other than fighting for the cause," he said. "Any lay observer would look at this and it would confirm all their worst suspicions about the Young Liberal movement . . . and all those stereotypes about Young Liberals being power-hungry, ruthless and immoral."

It would appear that young Liberals are no different from old Liberals....Power-hungry, ruthless and immoral....If they have no respect for eachother what respect do they have for the rest of us???

:-? :-? :-?

philperth2010 wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 11:00pm:

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Oh - I wouldn't say that... just abysmally uneducated in real life, lacking in any reliable foundation for moral fibre, and totally bereft of any real concept of what life is really all about....

Sad that... but totally true..... just one more bunch of twerps with too much privilege and too much time on their hands and without any real experience of real life.

We 'baby boomers' truly have a lot to answer for - we raised several generations of twerps.

It takes a village to raise a child - it takes several generations, governments, a country, and a lot of hard work to raise a generation of village idiots.....

is this thread whats known as plagiarism if a righty put it up???...

ok its by a

dont do as I do do as I say lefty...

.so of course it isnt plagiarism...

btw did anyone end up looking like this?..

just askin.

Que benny hill theme song

cods wrote on Jul 14^th, 2016 at 8:12am:

So you don't have anything to say about the thuggish behavior of liberals in training? It is good to get an insight as to what experiences they go through to create such twisted RWNJ adults such as yourself. :( :( :( :(

macman wrote on Jul 14^th, 2016 at 8:27am:

cods wrote on Jul 14^th, 2016 at 8:12am:

Of course they have nothing to say! The young liberals organisation needs a good broom through it, their actions over the past few years have been nothing less than disgraceful! The leaders of the future? A bunch of spoilt brats! Of cause, all the Roids can do is highjack the thread about events years ago - which were the subject of political and police intervention.

All it shows is they protect their own and bugger the rest.

Australian Politics Forum
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl General Discussion >> Federal Politics >> Farcical disunity at Young Liberals' meeting http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1468400306 Message started by Bam on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 6:58pm