Posted
Former Canberra Liberals president Gary Kent has slammed the current leadership team, claiming the party is becoming too far right and unelectable.
On Wednesday night Canberra Liberals president Tio Faulkner stepped down from the job, with the party's finance director Peter Collins taking over the top role.
Mr Kent, who previously held the presidency, says Mr Faulkner's decision was timely.
"Tio Faulkner stood down in part because we've made it very clear that we're not happy with the direction he was taking the party," he said.
"Tio's no longer there, I wish him well. But now we have a new president and we're hoping he will do a lot better and make sure the party becomes its true self."
Mr Kent is part of the Menzies Group, which believes the Liberals have lost their direction.
"The Menzies Group is a collection of several hundred members of the Liberal Party in Canberra and friends of the party, who believe that we need to do a lot better if we're going to be successful at winning Territory elections and holding our Senate seat," he said.
"We believe that the party has gone astray, we believe that we need to come back to the fundamental principles of the party being a broad church and really trying to represent the aspirations of Canberrans."
Mr Kent is no longer a Liberal Party member.
He quit after a stoush with the party executive about its preselection process.
"We've been taken over by a small rump who want to run the party for their own benefit. They're not interested much in policy development," he said.
"I think the policy platform we had at the last Territory election was pretty ordinary, we didn't stand for a lot at the last federal election in Canberra.
"People want an alternative, people are entitled to have an alternative."
Mr Kent says under the party is heading towards the hard right under current leader Jeremy Hanson.
"Jeremy is having to kowtow to some of the right-wingers in the party," he said.
"Jeremy is by far the outstanding leader in that team. I think Jeremy needs to be himself and do what he really wants to do and that is represent everybody in Canberra.
"Until he does that we're not going to win the next election. The people of Canberra will not vote for a hard right-wing rump."
He says the party's preselection process, which saw Zed Seselja oust then senator Gary Humphries from the top spot on the Liberals' senate ticket, has also hurt the party.
"I believe that the process was fundamentally unfair, in fact I would describe it as cheating on an industrial scale," he said.
"It won't happen again, but to get the best candidates you need to have a very fair and open process."
The Canberra Liberals have not responded to the ABC's request for a comment.
Topics: states-and-territories, liberals, act, canberra-2600
No comments:
Post a Comment