WA Libs to consider future of MP Nick Goiran

The Liberal Party’s WA arm will consider the conduct of sitting MP Nick Goiran at a meeting of its appeals and disciplinary committee next week.

WA Liberal MP Nick Goiran. Picture: Ian Munro

The Liberal Party’s West Australian arm will consider the conduct of sitting MP Nick Goiran at a meeting of its appeals and disciplinary committee next week.

The influential but at times controversial upper house state MP will have his future considered after the party’s ­Melville-Attadale branch submitted an 80-page proposal on the case for removing him.

There has been a push from some senior members of the party for the fight over the future of Mr Goiran and fellow powerbroker Peter Collier to be put off until after the federal election, but a decision on whether the pair remains now looks likely be decided before then as factional tensions continue to grow.

A motion calling for their expulsion – put forward by the Rossmoyne-Shelley branch, led by former party leader and prominent critic of the two men Mike Nahan – fell at the first hurdle at the party’s constitutional and drafting committee last year.

But a similar motion against Mr Goiran from the Melville-Attadale branch and its president, David Hay, has met with more success before the committee, and has been referred to the party’s appeals and disciplinary committee for consideration.

The hearing will give the branch an opportunity to plead its case for action against Mr Goiran, although it is understood the latest motion does not explicitly call for his expulsion. Many in the party agitating against the two powerbrokers believe factional interests aligned with Mr Goiran and Mr Collier control the majority of positions on the committee.

Mr Goiran and Mr Collier have copped blame over the party’s dismal showing at last year’s state election, which ended with the party reduced to two lower-house seats and losing opposition party status to the ­Nationals.

While both men have downplayed their level of influence, many within the party believe they have an outsized say over key internal party appointments and preselections.

The Australian last year revealed a leaked 700-page cache of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Mr Collier, Mr Goiran, former federal finance minister Mathias Cormann and a group of Liberals calling themselves The Clan, in which the group openly discussed plans to appoint people under their influence into positions of power within the party.

An election inquiry by influential Liberal figure Danielle Blain and Perth QC Mark Trowell did not identify individuals but was highly critical of the“unethical and underhand” conduct by some party MPs.

If the motion succeeds, the pair will be the first sitting MPs to be expelled from the party since Noel Crichton-Browne in 1995.

Disgruntled party members including former leader Bill Hassell and former state president Norman Moore recently formed a Liberal Reform Coalition, which late last year called for Mr Goiran and Mr Collier to resign.

A WA Liberal Party spokesman said: “The party is unable to comment on specific complaints or individual circumstances ...”

WA is shaping as a battleground state for the federal election. It has been a stronghold for the Liberal Party at a federal level but the Liberal-held seat of Stirling has been abolished through a redistribution, while the likes of Swan, Pearce and Hasluck – and potentially even the long-term Liberal stronghold of Tangney – could all be in danger.