‘Bitter slurs’: Scott Morrison denies racial allegations about 2007 preselection battle

Scott Morrison has doubled down on his response to explosive racial allegations about his preselection battle amid an unfolding controversy.

Scott Morrison has dismissed as “bitter slurs” the explosive allegations he warned Liberal Party members about his competitor’s Lebanese background when the two men were vying for preselection in 2007.

The Prime Minister on Sunday reiterated his outright rejection of media reports detailing allegations about his fight against Michael Towke to secure the Liberal party’s endorsement to be the candidate for Cook.

The Nine newspapers and the Saturday Paper published details from statutory declarations, signed in 2016, that claimed Mr Morrison told party members it would be risky to select Mr Towke because of his family background and because of rumours he was a “Moslem”.

Mr Morrison on Sunday said he would be willing to sign a statutory declaration of his own, testifying that the allegations were untrue.

Mr Towke beat Mr Morrison in the initial preselection ballot but the now Prime Minister ultimately won the right to contest the safe Liberal seat for the party. He has been the Cook MP since the 2007 federal election.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison allegedly warned Liberal party members against his competitor because of his Lebanese background, according to multiple reports. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Mr Towke, who authored one of those sworn testimonies, went public after Mr Morrison denied the allegations on Saturday, telling the Sun Herald and Sunday Age he stood by what he had asserted in his statutory declaration.

“Among many unedifying tactics used to unseat me from my preselection victory for Morrison, racial vilification was front and centre and he was directly involved,” he told the newspapers in a statement.

“Racism is divisive, creating hate and hurt, and should have no place in Australian society.”

Mr Morrison flatly denied the claims again on Sunday when he was asked if the authors of the statutory declarations had lied on them.

“Well, all I can say is, it’s just simply untrue. And these are quite malicious, and bitter slurs, which are deeply offensive, and I reject them out absolutely,” he told reporters in Tasmania.

Mr Morrison said his record of working with and supporting the Lebanese community in Australia spoke for itself.

He rebuffed the allegations as “mudslinging” from disgruntled colleagues, in a similar manner to his dismissal of bullying allegations from outgoing veteran Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells.

Mr Morrison had called Senator Fierravanti-Wells “disappointed” after she used parliamentary privilege to attack him on Tuesday, calling him an “autocrat” and a “bully” who was not fit to be Prime Minister.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells had been relegated to an unwinnable spot on the NSW Liberal Party senate ticket after losing her own contested preselection battle.

It was in that same Senate speech Senator Fierravanti-Wells re-stoked the 15-year-old controversy over Mr Morrison’s preselection.

She claimed he had interfered in the Cook contest after he decisively lost the initial preselection ballot to Mr Towke.

“Morrison might profess to be Christian, but there was nothing Christian about what was done to Michael Towke,” she told the Senate.

“I am advised that there are several statutory declarations to attest to racial comments made by Morrison at the time that we can’t have a Lebanese person in Cook.”

Michael Towke, pictured here in 2007, initially beat Mr Morrison in the preselection ballot, Sydney.

Mr Morrison’s allies have come to his defence as criticism swells over the allegations after their publication over the weekend.

Liberal MP Michael Sukkar said he felt “compelled to weigh in” on the reports as one of the few Australians of Lebanese descent in Parliament.

“In my experience, there is no MP, let alone PM, who’s shown more support, care and respect for the Australian Lebanese community,” he tweeted.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said no one had ever come to him with such concerns about Mr Morrison, noting that he had “categorically denied” the claims.