SA Liberals turn to Alan Jones and Katherine Deves to help chart new, more right-wing course

Former broadcaster Alan Jones and anti-trans campaigner Katherine Deves have been called upon by SA Liberal conservatives to help the party chart a new course.

Former broadcaster Alan Jones. Picture: John Feder

Former broadcaster Alan Jones and anti-trans campaigner ­Katherine Deves have been called upon by SA Liberal conservatives to help the party chart a new course after years of moderate domination.

The move, led by rebel right wing Senator Alex Antic, has enraged party moderates who fear the conservatives will use their surging membership numbers to shift the party so far right that it will be unelectable.

Senator Antic has been linked to the recruitment of about 1000 new members over the past 12 months, many frustrated Christians angered by key figures in the former Marshall Liberal government supporting late-term abortion and euthanasia laws.

In a tactical blunder, SA Liberal headquarters initially suspended the membership of hundreds of these members last year, angering and emboldening them.

The new members now account for almost 20 per cent of the SA division, with the conservatives a real chance of taking control of the party at its annual general meeting this weekend.

But alarmed moderates say there is already evidence the Antic forces are dragging the party so far to the right that it will be rejected by voters in what has historically been a small-l liberal state.

They fear the conservatives’ long-term goal is to rob moderates of preselection, including former social services minister Senator Anne Ruston and State MLC Jing Lee, whose involvement with the pro-Beijing SA Xinjiang Association saw her criticised publicly by party conservatives, including Senator Antic.

The Australian has spoken to several moderates who are refusing to comment publicly but one respected former federal figure, long-serving Howard government MP Trish Worth, said she feared the party risked losing its balance.

“I am in the John Howard mould in believing the Liberal Party has to provide good government for the people of Australia,” Ms Worth told The Australian.

“We will never win government if we are too far to the left or the right.”

The Australian has been told one of the first acts of the party’s now conservative-dominated Liberal Women’s Council was to invite lawyer and failed Warringah candidate Katherine Deves to Adelaide last month to address female party members.

Ms Deves was forced to clarify controversial comments ahead of this year’s federal election, when she said transgender children had been “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and likened the issue to the Holocaust, prompting Liberal moderates including NSW Treasurer Matt Kean and ousted North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman to urge her disendorsement.

But Ms Deves received a rave reception from conservatives in Adelaide, with new women’s council president Leah Blythe hailing her contribution to the Adelaide meeting.

“Katherine is a brave and principled advocate for women,” Ms Blyth wrote to women’s council members after the address.

“It was inspiring to hear the story of her campaign. She told of being thrust into the centre of a national debate over women’s sex-based rights, while being on the receiving end of significant adverse media attention.”

Moderates are demanding to know who footed the bill for Ms Deves’ visit, with one also saying: “It’s hard to know what insights we in SA can get from someone from Sydney’s North Shore who lost a blue-ribbon seat with a 7 per cent swing against her.”

Similar criticisms are being made of Senator Antic’s decision to invite broadcaster Alan Jones to Adelaide this Friday for a private address to party conservatives on the eve of the AGM at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Senator Antic sent invites to his supporters last week urging them to attend, describing Jones as “one of Australia’s most respected and recognisable broadcasting icons”.

“Alan is a person who you are not going to want to miss,” the invitation says.

Senator Antic told The Australian that the concern of moderates over the presence of Ms Deves and Jones in SA was a reflection of their censoriousness and showed how much trouble the SA branch was truly in.

“It is of little surprise that the left faction of the party in SA cannot understand the interest in hearing what great people like endorsed Liberal Party candidate Katherine Deves and lifelong Liberal supporter Alan Jones have to say,” Senator Antic told The Australian.

“Both speak without fear or favour about real Liberal values and don’t pull punches. I guess we can’t expect the architects of two catastrophic electoral failures in this state to understand.”