David Elliott slams Liberals’ ‘woke’ agenda after Mark Speakman’s ‘joke’ text

A NSW cabinet minister has broken ranks and unleashed on his party for drifting from the centre right. TAKE OUR POLL: Have the Liberals become too ‘woke’?

NSW cabinet minister David Elliott has broken ranks and unleashed on his own party for allowing members to propagate a “woke” agenda that alienates ­voters.

The Transport Minister said Labor’s win in South Australia was a dire warning to all MPs “interfering” with the government’s ability to stick to its traditional centre-right ideals.

“There are way too many woke issues that are seeping through the cracks and the electorate isn’t too grateful for it. It’s happening all over the place and my heart goes out to Dom (Perrottet) and Scott (Morrison) who are trying to manage parts of the Liberal Party who are interfering,” Mr Elliott said. “Forget about your pet issues, forget about the issues that are largely symbolic.”

A text message by Attorney-General Mark Speakman sent to colleagues. Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the extent of the internal warfare within Dominic Perrottet’s government with Attorney-General and moderate Liberal Mark Speakman sending a text message to some colleagues mocking a Facebook post from centre-right Mr Elliott.

In an exchange seen by the Telegraph, Mr Speakman sent a screenshot of Mr Elliott’s post in which the Transport Minister said the South Australian election loss was an example of “what happens when a centre-right party moved away from the centre-right”.

Mr Speakman then wrote: “See, I knew it was yous (sic) republicans what lost us the SA election”.

Transport Minister David Elliott has dismissed the “ramblings” of cabinet colleagues. Picture NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Mr Elliott said he was not worried about the “ramblings” of his cabinet colleagues as he assured commuters the Rail Tram and Bus Union had promised to keep commuter chaos to a minimum in a renewed round of protected industrial action from Monday.

“I‘m fighting the union, the public service, the Labor Party and the bloke over the road. The last thing that worries me are the ramblings of Mark Speakman,” he said.

The divide in the party comes as Mr Elliott said Liberal governments across the country should learn from Steven Marshall’s loss to Labor’s Peter ­Malinauskas in the South Australian election.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman. Picture: Christian Gilles

Mr Elliott said Mr Malinauskas’s landslide win, which saw victory in a number of marginal seats, was a “lesson to all MPs and party supporters”.

“We get perpetually distracted and as a result our base is moving away from us. In South Australia, some of those areas should never have swung,“ he said.

The party’s Centre Right faction has been at loggerheads with the moderates in the past over key policies, including the inquiry into ice use.

The two factions, along with the right, are also expected to be at odds over Mr Speakman’s historic reform to how the law deals with sexual assault.

The Attorney-General said his comments about Mr Elliott’s post were a “private joke.”

“I don’t comment on a private joke made to only two colleagues and I expected colleagues to behave likewise,” he said.