‘Brutal’: MP’s scathing take on ScoMo and Liberal party

A senior liberal has continued her attack on Scott Morrison and blamed him for “changing” the party she knew.

A senior Liberal has continued her scathing attack on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, expressing concerns over the direction of the Liberal party.

NSW Liberal MP Catherine Cusack announced two weeks ago she would resign from the Legislative Council over her anger about flood relief.

“The liberal party has changed very much since when I joined it 40 years ago,” Ms Cusack told The Project on Tuesday night.

“Particularly in terms of its values and the way it operates and makes decisions. These problems have flowed over now into public policy.”

She said Mr Morrison had forced “all of the moderates to vote for Craig Kelly” for preselection in the seat of Hughes ahead of the last federal election.

“That just about broke people. It’s ruthless and it’s brutal,” she said.

Ms Cusack has come out hard against the prime Minister and said the party as a whole has changed its values. Picture: Richard Dobson

Cusack also criticised Mr Morrison over his handling of the recent Northern NSW flood disaster and decision to direct funding to some areas and not others, which appeared to her to be politically motivated.

Mr Morrison announced extra funding for three local government areas that he described as the “worst hit”.

“Given it was the same flood water that took out Lismore that flowed down the river into Ballina Shire, which I belong to, people were actually quite shocked by that,” Ms Cusack said.

There was also suggestion that flood-relief funding announced by Mr Morrisons had been directed to areas that aligned politically with the coalition.

Ms Cusack pointed out that funding was initially being directed to the Nationals-held seat of page, and not the nearby Labor seat of Richmond.

“When he initially made the announcement, part of my shock as a Liberal was, ‘my god, this looks so bad’,” she said.

“After a week it became obvious when payments started flowing to the Page people that everybody else had been left off and the Prime Minister had moved on.”

Mr Morrison announced flood-relief funding for certain areas deemed to be the “hardest hit”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

Ms Cusack said when she joined the Liberal party the values revolved around “merit and supporting a competitive environment” as well as a “compassionate social justice policy”.

She blamed the emergence of factions for resulting in everything being “commodified”.

“Whether it’s a policy or a preselection, basically that gets put on the table, the guys all sit around and do deals,” Ms Cusack said.

“And I just realised, there’s a whole generation of Liberals now who think this is how to conduct business properly.”

Originally published as ‘Brutal’: MP’s scathing take on ScoMo and Liberal party