The Liberal Party of Australia Federal Council
comprises 14 delegates from each State and the ACT - the State / Territory President,
the State / Territory Parliamentary Leader, the President of the Young Liberal
Movement, the President / Chairman of the Women’s Council and 10 other
delegates.
More than 100 Liberal Party MPs, senators and party members were in Sydney on
16 June 2018 for the party’s 60th annual federal council which is
expected to be the last one before the next federal election.
Here are some of the smiling faces at the event readers
might recognise.
|
Twitter: A bevy of Liberal ministers: Sen. Mitch Fifield, Sen. Mathias Cormann, Julie Bishop MP & Malcolm Turnbull MP |
The Young Liberals put forward the motion “That
federal council calls for the full privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, except for services into regional areas that are not commercially
viable” and on a more than 2 to 1 show of hands the
council voted in favour this motion.
Council
delegate Mitchell Collier, federal vice president of the Young Liberals, asserted there was no economic
case to keep the broadcaster in public hands.
At the end of the motion debate Mitch Fifield reluctantly got to his feet at the urging of the Chair to
offer “comments and observations” but did not condemn the idea of privatisation or oppose the motion outright.
As the vote was on a show of hands only with no official count taken there is no record of how Fifield voted.
Four members
of the party’s federal executive voted in favour of the call for privatisation - Federal Liberal vice-presidents Karina Okotel
and Trish Worth, Young Liberal president Josh Manuatu and vice president
Mitchell Collier who moved the motion. Incoming Federal Liberal vice-president NSW member Teena
McQueen also voted for privatisation.
The federal council also voted in favour of an efficiency review
of the SBS network.
After the vote became public two Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) members made statements to the
media.
RMIT
University professor and IPA Senior Research Fellow Sinclair Davidson said privatisation of the ABC should be the “default”
Coalition policy as the Liberals were the party of small government which
supported private enterprise.
He also told Sky News that ‘Selling the ABC to Gina Rinehart would be magnificent’
IPA research
fellow Chris Berg said the preferred
option would be for ownership to be transferred to ABC staff or Australian taxpayers.
His claims that
the Turnbull Government supports the Australian public broadcaster and denies it has any intention of selling off the ABC.
Given past behaviour of the Abbott and Turnbull governments, the belligerence displayed towards the ABC and the stable from which
Fifield comes, I don’t believe a word of his denial.
Just as the Prime Minister's denial is not one on which I would depend.
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