Branch stacking may rule Liberal party if Tony Abbott’s reforms are put into effect

BRANCH stacking would rule the Liberal Party if formerPrime Minister Tony Abbott’s reforms are implemented, party elder Bruce Baird has warned.

Bruce Baird has warned branch stacking may rule the Liberal party. Picture: Kym Smith

BRANCH stacking would rule the Liberal Party if ex-PM Tony Abbott’s reforms are implemented in full, party elder Bruce Baird has warned.

In the first high-profile public­ comments attacking the plans to fully democratise the party so that every member gets a vote in every preselection, Mr Baird said he knew first-hand the dangers of branch stacking and feared for the party’s future­ if it was allowed­ to thrive.

Mr Baird is pushing for a compromise on the reforms that would honour the intent of Mr Abbott’s plans to democratise the party, but with restrictions that would guard against branch stacking. This would still be a win for the former­ PM.

Mr Baird’s former federal seat of Cook was at the heart of dramatic branch stacking in 2007, when hundreds of new members were ushered in to back a factional outlier at the expense of stronger candidates­.

Tony Abbott’s reforms is known as the Warringah motion. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Mr Abbott’s reforms, known as the Warringah motion­, would give every rank and file Liberal Party member a plebiscite vote in all preselections­ and party votes.

Mr Abbott and his supporters argue the reforms would put an end to factional powerbrokers. But opponents say this system would allow members­ to be brought in to the party to deliberately influence­ election outcomes.

“Branch stacking will rule, allowing anyone to move hundreds­ of people across the state to control preselections,” Mr Baird said.

Mr Baird, who was about to retire from his safe Liberal seat in 2007 but had not told anyone, said the sudden adding of 450 new members to the branch “was clearly deliberate­ to take me out”. “The result was ... because of a stack,” Mr Baird said. “It was all orchestrated and that’s exactly what we don’t want to go back to.”

In 2008 the party ruled that no more than 10 people per month could be added to a branch to prevent stacking.

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The compromise motion limits plebiscite preselections to lower house seats and sets minimum terms on how long someone must be a party member before voting. Senate and upper house preselections would not involve every party member. A senior Liberal state minister said “Warringah would lead to a branch-stacking war like never before”.