Onward Christian members as new recruits seek to right SA Liberals

A Christian-led membership surge is threatening to end years of moderate domination in the South Australian Liberal Party.

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint. Picture: Gary Ramage

A Christian-led membership surge is threatening to end years of moderate domination in the South Australian Liberal Party, with the conservative faction taking key positions and edging towards control of the party’s state executive.

The moderate-dominated SA Liberals are now paying a price for their poorly handled response to a membership surge this June when about 550 new members were accused of being a concerted “stack” orchestrated by conservative Liberal Senator Alex Antic.

State executive originally indicated it would suspend or block the new memberships amid claims they intended to target sitting moderate MPs for preselection. The threat backfired and almost all of the recruits were allowed to join.

They are now making their presence felt, with 11 of the 12 state council delegate positions elected at this Monday’s Liberal Women’s Council meeting hailing from the conservative faction.

The biggest winner on the night was the retiring member for Boothby, conservative Nicolle Flint, who was forced to attend the meeting via Microsoft Teams as she is in lockdown in Canberra. The Australian has obtained a copy of her speech in which she bluntly said the party had become unbalanced under moderate control and needed to better reflect the broader spectrum of Liberal thought.

She also specifically credited Christian members with making sure the party provided people with a voice to speak up on social policy.

“For too long Women’s Council has not been a place where all women have felt welcome and supported and that is why many women have not been active members in the past,” Ms Flint said.

“I want us to take back the moral high ground on women from Labor and the left.

“I want us to uphold our core Liberal principles of reward for effort, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, staying true to our nation’s founding Christian values, and supporting the family unit.”

The biggest battle for the SA Liberals looms at next month’s AGM where the right now seems well-placed to win back control from the left.

This will leave SA in the delicate position of having a conservative party machine working with a moderate-dominated state government.