Expulsion bid in WA Liberals’ factional war

The latest tit-for-tat infighting within Western Australia’s Liberal Party has led to an attempted expulsion of one of the party’s recent Senate candidates.

Sherry Sufi.

The latest tit-for-tat infighting within Western Australia’s Liberal Party has led to an attempted expulsion of one of the party’s recent Senate candidates.

Sherry Sufi, who held the fourth position on the Liberals’ WA Senate ticket at the May election, was last week called to appear before the party’s appeals and disciplinary committee after a complaint was lodged against him.

It is understood the complaint – which centred on recent commentaries made by Dr Sufi in the media – was dismissed at the end of the meeting.

Liberal Party rules prohibit members from speaking publicly about party matters, and Dr Sufi, who is also a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, has appeared on Sky News and written newspaper opinion pieces touching on the party’s policy positions.

It is understood Dr Sufi successfully argued that the prohibition on public discussion of party matters was limited to the internal workings of the party, such as preselections and party meetings, and not matters of public policy.

Dr Sufi had previously attracted a complaint from senator Linda Reynolds over his organisation of a meeting of party members to discuss the recent federal election defeat. The event was ultimately attended by federal MPs Andrew Hastie, Dean Smith and Matt O’Sullivan.

The appeals and disciplinary committee hearing the complaint against Dr Sufi is understood to have included Perth businesswoman Caroline Di Russo, who is a regular Sky News commentator.

The complaint against Dr Sufi is the latest in a string of attempted expulsions within the Liberal Party in the state, amid an ongoing and increasingly bitter factional civil war.

A group of influential conservatives including state upper house MPs and perceived powerbrokers Nick Goiran and Peter Collier, which called itself The Clan in a cache of WhatsApp messages that was leaked to media last year, is fighting moderate factions including the recently formed Liberal Reform Coalition and another group calling itself the ABC, for Anyone But Collier.

Dr Sufi is a prominent figure in the party’s Fremantle branch, which is seen as strongly aligned with The Clan and which brought expulsion proceedings against prominent Perth property developer Nigel Satterley earlier this year. Mr Satterley is a long-term supporter of the Liberal Party but has been fiercely critical in recent years over what he says is the excessive influence of religious conservatives on the party.

Groups aligned with The Clan last year lodged expulsion complaints against three party members who spoke out against the powerbrokers in the wake of the WhatsApp revelations.

Expulsion motions were also moved against a man accused of leaking information that showed some regional party branches had come under the control of people living up to 100km away.

Those proceedings are understood to have since fallen away.

Opposing factions, meanwhile, have lodged an expulsion motion against Mr Goiran that remains in train.

The ongoing tensions come as the party prepares to meet later this month for its annual state conference, where the party will vote on several party reforms.

Groups such as the Liberal Reform Coalition believe the proposed reforms do not go far enough and will not sufficiently curtail the influence of perceived powerbrokers.

One of the party elders now involved in the Liberal Reform Coalition, former party president Norman Moore, is embroiled in an ongoing dispute over his application for access to a copy of the party’s membership register.