Daniel Andrews wants answers over alleged far-Right links to Liberals

Premier Daniel Andrews has demanded Scott Morrison explain whether anyone in the Liberal Party worked with a far-Right activist to disrupt last year’s Victorian election.

Neil Erikson claims he was contacted by figures in the Liberal party. Picture: AAP

Premier Daniel Andrews has demanded Scott Morrison explain whether anyone in the Liberal Party worked with a far-Right activist to disrupt last year’s Victorian election.

Mr Andrews said this morning that the Prime Minister had some “very serious questions” to answer about the claims made by Neil Erikson, one of the founders of the United Patriots Front.

The Victorian Premier’s explosive comments come as the Victorian Liberal Party is currently meeting to disendorse its candidate for Isaacs, after the Herald Sun revealed a series of anti-Muslim comments he made online.

LIBERAL MP DENIES MEETING ACTIVIST

The intervention also follows Western Australian Liberal MP Andrew Hastie saying he was “confident” he never met Mr Erikson, despite his colleague Ian Goodenough saying they had a “brief encounter” at a Perth rally last year.

Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture Gary Ramage

Mr Erikson first made the allegations about meeting Mr Hastie and Mr Goodenough — as well as others in the Liberal Party — in an online video earlier this year.

Mr Andrews said Mr Erikson had alleged that he was contacted by Liberal members “to interfere, to cause trouble, to disrupt the Victorian election last year, to challenge and put at risk the harmony, the respect we have as a defining feature of our state”.

“That’s a very serious matter and one that the Prime Minister should answer for,” Mr Andrews said.

“Scott Morrison is very good at demanding others answer questions. The key point today is that he’s got some explaining to do and he should be quick about it.”

Mr Erikson told the Herald Sun he met with Mr Hastie and Mr Goodenough at a rally for white South African farmers in April last year.

He said has had “multiple other meetings” with Liberal MPs “where we discussed content creation using Islamic fears in the community”, but would not name any of the other MPs.

“There was multiple things going on during that time. My main part was creating content and letting the Right Wing know the Libs were cleaning house,” Mr Erikson said.

“I’m still friendly with some Liberal Members and Staffers so I don’t think it would be wise to throw everybody out there,” he added.

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