SA Liberals vent fury in party room over Christian ‘purge’

Conservative SA Liberal MPs have urged Josh Frydenberg to intervene after hundreds of Pentecostal Christians had been forced out of the party.

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint. Picture: Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Conservative South Australian Liberal MPs have urged Josh Frydenberg to intervene in the state branch after venting outrage that hundreds of Pentecostal Christians had been forced out of the party.

Nicolle Flint, Tony Pasin and Alex Antic lashed out at the moderate-dominated state branch in a meeting of federal Liberal MPs on Tuesday, after 150 conservative members were terminated and a further 400 members asked to “show cause” as to why they should not be kicked out.

Liberal MP Tony Pasin. Picture: Supplied

In what was described as a “robust discussion”, the conservative MPs called on the Treasurer — the acting Liberal leader while Scott Morrison is overseas — to intervene in the state branch “as a matter of ­urgency”, according to sources in the meeting.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, a leading SA moderate, is claiming the suspended members were planning to “campaign against endorsed candidates at the next election” and some did not support the Liberal Party.

Conservative MPs reject this and say no evidence has been provided to support the claim. They say it is a “power grab” by the moderate faction to maintain its control of the branch.

Ms Flint, the member for Boothby, told the meeting it was the most “extraordinary and undemocratic decision I’ve seen in my time in Liberal Party”.

She said the requirement for members to sign statutory declarations pledging their loyalty was “offensive to our founding principles, especially free speech and democracy”, according to MPs.

Mr Pasin said he joined parliament to defend freedom of religion and “I never thought I’d have to take up the fight within the Liberal Party”.

“The message to Christians coming out of the Liberal Party in South Australia is clear: ‘You are not welcome,’ ” he told MPs.

“Which was a message that spectacularly backfired on Bill Shorten when the Labor Party attacked the PM’s religiosity prior to the last federal election,” he said.

“This will make winning the next federal election and the seat of Boothby in particular much harder. It’s madness.”

Senator Antic claimed it would cost the government the seat of Boothby at the next poll.

Mr Frydenberg told the MPs that while it was a legitimate issue to raise in the partyroom, it needed to be resolved by the state branch.

He said he would raise their concerns with Liberal Party federal president John Olsen.

He said the Liberal Party was a broad church and freedom of religion was fundamental.

“The Liberal Party is a broad church,” he told the meeting of Liberal MPs.

“We welcome people regardless of their religion, their race their ethnicity their gender.”

Conservative MPs are threatening legal action against the South Australian branch over the ordeal.

Senator Birmingham told the ABC he supported the decision to challenge the memberships of people linked to Pentecostal churches.

“When confronted with a series of allegations that new members had told other party members and state MPs that they were going to campaign against endorsed candidates at the next election, that they didn’t support those MPs, that in some cases they didn’t actually support the Liberal Party, then it seemed the prudent thing to do for the party to run an audit process, to try to ensure that those who are seeking to join are actually supporters of the Liberal Party and will support our candidates,” he said.