Liberal player Karina Okotel sorry for nasty dirt sheet

Victorian Liberal factional powerbroker Karina Okotel has apologised for the dirt sheet she wrote about seven MPs.

Karina Okotel. Picture Kym Smith

Former federal Liberal vice-president Karina Okotel has apologised for penning a defamatory dirt sheet that covered intimate details of MPs’ private lives, fuelling ­demands she be expelled from the party.

Ms Okotel has privately admitted writing the document, which opponents believe breaches party rules, and is facing an internal ­investigation to determine whether she is expelled or suspended from the party.

She is also facing potential legal action for the comments, some of which are salacious and false.

Key state MPs are demanding leader Michael O’Brien and the party act against Ms Okotel, who in 2018 wrote a series of criticisms of seven upper house MPs as part of a plan to replace them with herself and six other new candidates.

The Australian understands that Ms Okotel has started to contact people affected by the dirt sheet, declaring that the lurid allegations were made at a factional meeting and the comments were noted by her and then reproduced in the document.

The document seen by The Australian, is headed “MLC (MP) Replacement Strategy Document,” and is a carefully constructed table by Ms Okotel, attacking the seven MPs and who they should be replaced with.

She lists herself as replacing frontbencher Edward O’Donohue because, in part, he is a “white man”.

She also has privately apologised for her central role in the party’s faction that involved young powerbroker Marcus Bastiaan, who this week resigned from the ­organisation after being accused of branch-stacking.

It has emerged that Ms Okotel, who controls about 10 per cent of the Victorian Liberal Party, had a much larger role in the Bastiaan group than was previously understood. Victorian Liberal upper house MP Bernie Finn, who was attacked in Ms Okotel’s document for allegedly starting fights with party members, told The Australian that he had met her after the last state election and Ms Okotel had apologised for her ­behaviour and involvement in factional politics.

He wrote on Facebook this week: “It takes real strength of character to admit when we’re wrong, apologise to those we’ve harmed and set about making up for that harm.

“Karina Okotel has that strength of character.”

Mr Finn said she had apologised for her past behaviour.

“I was happy enough to accept that,” he told The Australian.

Anyone who is found guilty of conduct “gravely detrimental” to the best interests of the party can be expelled or suspended.

This can include being disloyal to the party and can then trigger a long process that can ultimately be prosecuted if a two-thirds ­majority of the Victorian branch’s state assembly is reached.

The row over Ms Okotel and her brother Joshua Bonney, a former staffer to Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, has split the party.

It also has destabilised Mr O’Brien’s leadership, with prominent MPs in the Liberal Party room furious with Ms Okotel, ­demanding that she be dumped from the party.

Former state leader Matthew Guy and frontbencher Tim Smith have called publicly for Ms Okotel to be sacked.

Ms Okotel supports Mr O’Brien and party president Robert Clark, but both are under intense pressure to ensure there is a transparent investigation into her behaviour and that of her brother.

Mr Bonney is accused of being critical of Mr Sukkar, his former boss. Neither Mr Bonney nor Ms Okotel have responded to The Australian.

Two other Liberals have faced internal party disciplinary proceedings over the branch-stacking controversy.

A senior party source told The Australian “there will be a riot” if Ms Okotel is not disciplined.

“This is not about numbers, it’s about discipline and decency,” a senior MP said.