Tasmanian Liberal feud over Brendan Blomeley expulsion threatens wider revolt

The nation’s last governing Liberals in Tasmania face a damaging stoush at their coming annual state council meeting over moves to reverse the expulsion of a senior conservative.

Tasmanian minister Eric Abetz is aiding attempts to have the exiled Brendan Blomeley returned to the Liberal Party fold. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The nation’s last governing Liberals face a damaging stoush at their coming annual state council meeting over moves to reverse the expulsion of a senior conservative.

Party sources say blood­letting could overshadow or even derail the meeting later this month, after the failure of a new “peace plan” to reinstate Brendan Blomeley.

The high-profile mayor of Clarence, on Hobart’s eastern shore, was expelled after he initially failed to rule out running as an independent at the March state election.

Mr Blomeley’s supporters accuse the party’s president, Michael McKenna, of using the issue as an excuse to neutralise a threat to his position. Mr Blomeley narrowly failed to unseat Mr McKenna as president in 2023.

Defenders of Mr McKenna’s actions say Mr Blomeley breached the party constitution by allowing people to think he was running as an independent, and the expulsion was backed by state executive.

The standoff between the party president and Mr Blomeley and his supporters, who include fellow conservative Eric Abetz, is destabilising the party, particularly in the electorate of Franklin. An initial “peace plan” bid failed in May.

Sources said a revised plan drawn up in recent weeks was put to Mr McKenna by Premier Jeremy Rockliff. It would have seen Mr Blomeley reinstated, with an acknowledgment by him that he should have quashed the independent talk sooner.

The plan would have seen Mr Blomeley agree to not seek any party position for 12 months.

“The above approach was … rejected out of hand, without even the decency of a counter proposal,” Mr Blomeley said on Monday, in an email to members of his Liberal branch.

“Our party deserves so much better. The only option left, having attempted to resolve the matter, is to have the matter canvassed at state council.”

Mr Blomeley told members a showdown at state council, on August 31, was “regrettable but the only alternative left to the membership concerned about principle, democracy, fairness and following the constitution”.

The issue threatens to overshadow the Liberal love-in, adding to unrest over the 12 per cent swing against the party at the March state election.

Those supporting Mr McKenna’s decision say Mr Blom­eley continued to ignore a process whereby he could seek to rejoin the party. Others say the beach was a matter of interpretation and Mr Blomeley had done nothing wrong.

In his email, Mr Blomeley accuses the “current party leadership” of “mischievously peddling … misinformation” about him and of being “not about party but self-­preservation”.

“Many of you have expressed your disbelief with the current leadership of our party and the toxic environment,” he told members in his Franklin electorate. “Some have resigned and many others have considered that course … The Liberal base is bewildered.”

Sources suggest the federal parliamentary Liberal Party and most of the state parliamentary Liberal Party are backing Mr McKenna’s position.

Mr McKenna said Mr Blom­eley was “welcome to apply to rejoin the party at any time”.

Mr Blomeley declined to comment.