Mathias Cormann rubbishes ‘completely insane’ fake poll allegation

Mathias Cormann says Louise Stewart’s claim the Liberal Party was involved is “completely insane”.

Senator Mathias Cormann. Picture: Kym Smith

The independent candidate for Curtin, Louise Stewart, has suggested the Liberal Party is behind a fake polling scandal that has derailed her campaign, claiming party powerbroker Mathias Cormann and other Liberals have “serious questions to answer”.

But Senator Cormann told The Australian that Ms Stewart’s allegations were “completely insane”.

“Any suggestion that I was in any way involved in any of this is false,” he said.

“The first time I ever heard of this fake poll was when I read about it on the front page of The West Australian. It was immediately obvious that the reported poll was inconsistent with our feedback on the ground or our own research.”

Ms Stewart last week released a poll, purportedly conducted by ReachTel, showing she could win the blue-ribbon seat against Liberal candidate Celia Hammond.

It has since emerged the polling was fabricated, with Ms Stewart alleging a “third party” had sent her an email containing the false data.

However, Ms Stewart has refused to release the email or to reveal why she told The West Australian that she had commissioned ReachTel to conduct the poll.

Louise Stewart. Picture: Colin Murty

Earlier today, Senator Cormann called on Ms Stewart to withdraw from the contest.

But in a statement, Ms Stewart claimed a “desperate” Liberal Party was behind the scandal in an attempt to stop her candidacy in Curtin and to impose an “extreme conservative candidate” on the electorate, in Perth’s wealthy western suburbs.

“Mathias Cormann suggested that I had ‘questions to answer’ over the polling published in The West Australian on Saturday,” she said.

“Now it appears it is Mathias Cormann and his fellow Liberal Party conservatives who have serious questions to answer.

“If it is indeed the case that another political party has sought to sabotage my campaign in this way it would be a damning indictment on them.”

Under pressure to answer mounting questions about her role in the scandal, Ms Stewart said she had received the fake polling data in an email that originated from the domain name independentinc.org.au.

She said previous media reports had suggested a link between an organisation with a similar name to “independentinc” and the campaigns supporting high-profile independents on the east coast being backed by Malcolm Turnbull’s son Alex.

She had spoken to Alex Turnbull and they believed the domain name may have originated from a location “close to a senior conservative WA Liberal MP’s office in Perth”.

Senator Cormann said the allegations were ridiculous.

“It is clear that The West and their readers across WA have been deceived by an inaccurate fake poll which was reported to be a ReachTel poll commissioned by an independent candidate in Curtin,” he said.

“If the independent who initially claimed to have commissioned the poll now believes she has also been deceived, I strongly encourage her to publicly release all the relevant material in her possession, including any emails she has received providing this supposed poll to her.

“If she or anybody else has any evidence that an offence may have been committed they should refer all information they hold to the police.

“The people of Western Australia deserve to know who has sought to deceive them.”