ManlyBacker
Winging it
Following on from the loonie efforts by a former Brogden aide to kill the Premier and damage Parliament comes this gem:
SMH 18/4/05
By Damien Murphy and Gerard Noonan
Lebanese Catholics recruited to the Liberal Party by the Christian right allegedly flashed pistols to intimidate opponents at a meeting to establish a new branch, according to a complaint lodged with NSW Liberal headquarters.
The recruits were spearheading an attempt by the Christian right to win control of preselections for federal and state seats in several upper North Shore Liberal electorates, including the Berowra seat of the federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock.
Branch stacking and counter-branch stacking has become so rife that the state Liberal Leader, John Brogden, specifically asked delegates at Saturday's Liberal state council at Homebush Bay to stop the factional brawling.
The party's disputes panel has received several submissions from members about the inaugural meeting of a proposed Beaumont Hills branch in Kellyville on January 7, during which police were called to break up a melee.
The meeting became unruly when more than 100 right-wing supporters started arguing with several left-wingers, who arrived in buses with the MP for Hawkesbury, Steven Pringle.
One submission said several Lebanese supporters of a local political hopeful, David Baynie, had demonstrated that they had brought pistols, and that this had the effect of intimidating other members.
The increasingly powerful Christian right, and the Liberals' left faction, known as The Group, are battling for control of preselections in Berowra and Alan Cadman's federal seat of Mitchell, as well as the state seats of Epping, Hawkesbury, The Hills and Baulkham Hills.
SMH 18/4/05
By Damien Murphy and Gerard Noonan
Lebanese Catholics recruited to the Liberal Party by the Christian right allegedly flashed pistols to intimidate opponents at a meeting to establish a new branch, according to a complaint lodged with NSW Liberal headquarters.
The recruits were spearheading an attempt by the Christian right to win control of preselections for federal and state seats in several upper North Shore Liberal electorates, including the Berowra seat of the federal Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock.
Branch stacking and counter-branch stacking has become so rife that the state Liberal Leader, John Brogden, specifically asked delegates at Saturday's Liberal state council at Homebush Bay to stop the factional brawling.
The party's disputes panel has received several submissions from members about the inaugural meeting of a proposed Beaumont Hills branch in Kellyville on January 7, during which police were called to break up a melee.
The meeting became unruly when more than 100 right-wing supporters started arguing with several left-wingers, who arrived in buses with the MP for Hawkesbury, Steven Pringle.
One submission said several Lebanese supporters of a local political hopeful, David Baynie, had demonstrated that they had brought pistols, and that this had the effect of intimidating other members.
The increasingly powerful Christian right, and the Liberals' left faction, known as The Group, are battling for control of preselections in Berowra and Alan Cadman's federal seat of Mitchell, as well as the state seats of Epping, Hawkesbury, The Hills and Baulkham Hills.
