Christians ‘infiltrate Liberals’ vote slate in Western Australia

At least five former Christian Democrats candidates and members will stand for the Liberals at this weekend’s West Australian election.

Ka-ren Chew (front left) standing next to Liberal Party deputy leader Libby Mettam. Picture: Facebook

At least five former Christian Democrats candidates and members will stand for the Liberals at this weekend’s West Australian election, representing an unprecedented infiltration of a major party by a fringe party.

The Liberals are headed for a wipe-out on Saturday, with Newspoll predicting the party could be left with as few as two seats, and there are growing concerns among the party’s base that the hold of religious conservatives over the party’s pre­selection process is deterring talented people from putting themselves forward as can­didates and costing the party ­support from mainstream voters.

One Liberal MP, who did not want to be named, said they feared the growing influence of religious conservatives could spark a protest vote.

“It’s a serious problem for the Liberal Party in WA. If we don’t fix it, it’s going to destroy the party,” the MP said.

Conservative powerbroker Nick Goiran — who was a member of and donor to the Christian Democratic Party before he joined the Liberal Party — is joined on the upper house ticket for the South Metropolitan ­region by Ka-ren Chew, who stood for the Christian Democrats in 2005, 2008 and 2013.

Amanda-Sue Markham stood for the Christian Democrats — now known in WA as the Australian Christians — in 2001, Phil Twiss was a Christians candidate in the 2016 federal election, and Owen Mulder ran for the fringe party in the 2013 federal election.

Another Liberal upper house candidate, Greg Halls, stood for the Family First party in the 2013 election.

The perceived influence of conservative religious factions over the Liberal Party’s preselection processes has emerged as a key area of focus during the WA election campaign.

The Liberal MP said Mr Goiran was leading a push to give ­religious conser­vatives control of most of the party’s divisions.

“The Liberal Party has always represented a broad swath of the community, and this is taking us down to a more narrow view,” the MP said.

“I fear this element is going to do us an enormous amount of damage.”

Mr Goiran’s mother, Madeleine, and father, Gerard, have been perennial candidates for the Australian Christians.

Mrs Goiran is party secretary and contesting the seat of Thornlie at this election.

The Australian Christians have struggled to attract widespread support, securing less than 2 per cent of the overall vote for WA’s upper house and 2.7 per cent in each of the lower house electorates at the last election.

The party is fielding only 29 candidates at this election, down from 45 four years ago, while Family First is not running any candidates.

A spokesman for the Liberal Party said the idea the party had been infiltrated by religious conservative factions was “Labor nonsense” that it rejected ­“entirely”.