PM’s right-hand man Alex Hawke in branch fracas
The Prime Minister’s right-hand-man, Alex Hawke, is embroiled in a Liberal Party investigation that is set to go to court amid claims minutes at his local branch were doctored to secure his power base.
NSW
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The Prime Minister’s right-hand-man, Alex Hawke, is embroiled in a Liberal Party investigation that is set to go to court amid claims minutes at his local branch were doctored to secure his power base.
Mr Hawke’s factionally-aligned heads of the Baulkham Hills branch in his electorate of Mitchell are the subject of an investigation by the Liberal Party following accusations branch minutes were amended to stop 10 new conservative members from joining the branch, which could have led to a takeover.
The Baulkham Hills branch is also critical at a state level for NSW Police Minister David Elliott.
At a branch meeting on October 8, 2018, attended by Mr Hawke, who is Minister for International Development, but not Mr Elliott, there was a vote approving branch entry to 10 new conservative members.
The results of this were confirmed in a text message sent by a branch member after the vote.
“All branch members were accepted that were nominated in the meeting,” a text message, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, shows.
The vote was an upset for Mr Hawke, who stood to lose control of one of the crucial branches in his electorate, which could have had repercussions for his future.
So concerned were Mr Hawke and Mr Elliott about the vote, they both moved their memberships from their home branches of Crestwood and Bella Vista to the Baulkham Hills branch to try to secure the numbers.
Mr Hawke is Scott Morrison’s representative on State Executive and a key factional ally who did his numbers on the week Malcolm Turnbull was rolled.
But after the branch meeting the list of official branch members circulated did not include the 10 new members.
Some of the 10 said they were also told that the vote on their bid to join the branch had been unsuccessful.
The Daily Telegraph has obtained 12 statutory declarations of members present at the branch meeting who all say the vote on October 8 elected the 10 members.
One branch member, Rosina Gordon, said she voted as “part of the majority” to accept the incoming group.
“All members were accepted with no rejections,” she wrote in her statutory declaration.
Baulkham Hills branch vice-president and former staff member for ex-Prime Minister John Howard, Kieran Walton, lodged a complaint with NSW Liberal Party state director Chris Stone, where he alleged “misleading actions” including “amending” the branch minutes.
“I am concerned that there is a discrepancy in what the new members who contacted the secretariat have been told about the status of their membership and what has been told to me by the secretary of the branch,” he wrote in the complaint.
“I am led to assume that the minutes submitted to Liberal Party HQ have been subsequently amended.”
In January last year NSW Liberal Party deputy state director Simon McInnes, who has acted as Scott Morrison’s federal electorate treasurer, intervened.
He said the party did not believe the matter to be a “dispute”, and that Mr Stone needed to first make a determination before it should be dealt with by the panel.
The matter has been under investigation ever since and remains unresolved, with the Liberal Party head office accused of sitting on the matter for 18 months for political reasons.
The delay is expected to be raised at State Executive tomorrow. Lawyers have been briefed and conservative members of the Baulkham Hills branch are preparing to take the matter to court.
Conservatives are planning to challenge Mr Hawke’s next preselection and the Baulkham Hills Branch could be crucial to the outcome of the preselection.
A spokesman for Mr Hawke also said the minister was “unable to discuss internal party matters in the media”.
Originally published as PM’s right-hand man Alex Hawke in branch fracas