Morrison accused of using race in bid for seat

A key figure in the Liberal Party contest that vaulted Scott Morrison into federal Parliament in 2007 has gone public with his claim that the Prime Minister was directly involved in “racial vilification” against him.

Michael Towke ended 15 years of silence on the incendiary claim about the long-disputed ballot by saying Mr Morrison told party members they should not vote for him because he was from a Lebanese family and because of rumours he was a Muslim.

The Liberal Party has two statutory declarations alleging Scott Morrison made disparaging comments about Michael Towke (pictured), another preselection candidate for Cook.Credit: Jon Reid

The Prime Minister denied ever making the claims when asked on Saturday about the way he secured the party’s endorsement for the federal seat of Cook in southern Sydney, with questions of character now at the heart of the election debate.

But Mr Towke stood by a newly revealed statutory declaration he made in 2016 about the comments spread against him in the preselection, telling The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age the campaign against him was racial vilification.

“I stand by the declarations I asserted in my statutory declaration,” he said, in his first public statement on the comments about his family background.

“Amongst many unedifying tactics used to unseat me from my preselection victory for Morrison, racial vilification was front and centre and he was directly involved.

“Racism is divisive, creating hate and hurt, and should have no place in Australian society.”

One of the delegates in the ballot, longstanding party member Marie Ficarra, said the contest was the worst she had seen in her time in the party because of a number of claims made against Mr Towke, who she supported. Mr Towke has Lebanese heritage and is a Catholic.

“I’ve been in the Liberal Party for over 40 years, and I’ve never witnessed such a vicious preselection with such distortions of the truth,” Ms Ficarra told The Sun Herald and The Sunday Age on Saturday.

“It almost caused me to want to leave the party from what I saw.”

Liberal members elected Mr Towke as their candidate for Cook in a ballot in July 2007 in which he won 82 votes and Mr Morrison won 8, but this sparked a dispute over the claims against Mr Towke and led to Mr Morrison being endorsed as the candidate the following month.

Another person who voted in the ballot, Lorraine Johnson, said she knew of claims made against Mr Towke that were false.

“I remember it was an unfair preselection. It was unfair to Michael Towke,” she said.

The two statutory declarations, signed in 2016 about the events in 2007, claim Mr Morrison told party members it was electorally risky to select Mr Towke because of his ethnic background and because of rumours he was a Muslim.

Outgoing Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells left it until she was on the way out to take a stand.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The ballot came less than two years after the Cronulla riots in 2005, which pitted some beachgoers against youths with Middle East backgrounds at the beachside suburb that is part of the Cook electorate.

One of the declarations was from a delegate in the preselection, Scott Chapman, who said Mr Morrison spoke about his rival’s family background as a factor in the contest.

“Scott Morrison told me that, if Michael Towke were to be preselected, there would be a ‘swing against the Liberal Party in Cook’ because of Mr Towke’s Lebanese background,” Mr Chapman said.

“Also during that meeting, Scott Morrison informed me that there was a strong rumour about that ‘Michael Towke is actually a Moslem’ [sic].”

Mr Chapman worked for the local Liberal effort after the preselection and helped Mr Morrison win the seat, gaining recognition for this in the Prime Minister’s first speech to Parliament when he thanked Mr Chapman for being part of his campaign team.

In his 2016 statutory declaration, however, Mr Chapman said that Mr Morrison had told him during the 2007 contest that there were “numerous” allegations against Mr Towke.

The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age sought comment from Mr Chapman, but he declined to respond.

The second declaration, written by Mr Towke, says a number of party members told him Mr Morrison had appealed to them to vote against him “solely on the rationale that my family heritage was Lebanese” because this would hurt the Liberal campaign.

“He was adamant and explicit that a candidate of Lebanese heritage could not hold the seat of Cook, especially after the Cronulla riots,” he said.

“It was also brought to my attention that in some of these meetings Morrison informed the preselector that he was aware of a strong rumour that I was actually a Muslim.”

Scott Morrison, speaking with locals at Cronulla Beach in the lead up to the 2007 federal election, and (inset) Michael Towke.Credit: Dallas Kilponen/Jon Reid

This masthead has previously reported that Mr Towke grew up as a Maronite Catholic and went to Marcellin College in Randwick and later attended Our Lady of the Way, a Catholic church in Sylvania, where the Liberal branch became part of his base in the preselection.

The statutory declarations were signed in 2016 after several years of litigation in which Mr Towke received $50,000 from News Corp Australia publications over their reports on the claims made against him and also received $33,000 from the Liberal Party to refund his legal costs.

The two statutory declarations were not used in legal proceedings and appear to have been prepared to record events for media inquiries, although their contents were not revealed until this weekend in an online report by this masthead and a report in The Saturday Paper.

Mr Morrison on Saturday denied that he had ever warned Liberal Party members the safe seat of Cook – for which he hoped to be pre-selected at that time in 2007 – could be lost because voters might mistakenly believe Mr Towke was a Muslim.

Asked directly if he had said those words, or warned about Mr Towke’s Lebanese background, the Prime Minister said “no” three times to questions from journalists.

Mr Morrison’s spokesman emphatically rejected the claims when asked on Friday if the Prime Minister had spoken in this way about his opponent’s Lebanese background or the rumour he was a Muslim.

“These claims are baseless and false and reflect poorly on those spreading such lies with such malicious intent,” the spokesman said.

The former member for the seat, Bruce Baird, who was aware of the preselection dispute but did not vote in the contested ballot, said he had never heard Mr Morrison say anything racist.

“I never found him racist, I didn’t find him a bully,” said Mr Baird, who employed Mr Morrison at the Tourism Council when he led the organisation in the 1990s, in a period between being a NSW government minister and moving into federal politics.

“There were lots of people he interacted with, but nobody said he was a bully. I’ve never heard him say anything racist at all.”

Another former member, Stephen Mutch, who represented Cook in the 1990s, said he voted for Mr Towke in the ballot after hearing from Mr Morrison.

“In that preselection, Morrison’s telephone sales pitch to me galvanised my support for Michael Towke,” said Dr Mutch, who became an academic at Macquarie University after leaving Parliament.

In an extraordinary attack on a Liberal prime minister from an elected member of his party ahead of an election, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells described Mr Morrison as “ruthless” and a “bully” and said he had made “racial comments” against Mr Towke in the 2007 preselection contest.

Mr Towke worked for Senator Fierravanti-Wells at one stage and gained her support for his bid to win Liberal preselection for Cook. While he won the first ballot, the claims made against him led the NSW Liberal state executive to decide he could not be the candidate. Mr Morrison won the endorsement.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.