An all-out brawl has broken out within the Liberal Party over its performance in Western Sydney.
Federal Director of the Party, Brian Loughnane, has accused incoming senior minister Scott Morrison of backgrounding against the party's state director Mark Neeham.
Mr Loughnane questioned The Daily Telegraph yesterday on whether it was the immigration spokesman, Mr Morrison, who was backgrounding against Mr Neeham over the party's performance in Western Sydney.
He said whoever in the Liberal Party was backgrounding against Mr Neeham was "wide of the mark" and "If it's Scott Morrison? ..." he asked.
When asked why he believed Mr Morrison would background against Mr Neeham, Mr Loughnane said it was because Mr Morrison did not like Mr Neeham.
The Daily Telegraph then suggested it might call Mr Morrison, who is a former state party director, to which Mr Loughnane, who is married to Tony Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin, said that he was sure we already knew what Mr Morrison's views were.
His comments came after The Daily Telegraph reported Liberal Party disquiet about Mr Neeham's performance and the fact Liberal Party failed to win the seats of Greenway and Parramatta in the area where they did so well at the state election......
One aspect criticised has been the failure of the party to attempt to rescue the campaign of Greenway candidate Jaymes Diaz after he was caught on camera on the first day of the campaign as being unable to tell Tony Abbott's six-point plan on asylum seekers.
Respected party elder Senator Arthur Sinodinos has said the party should have got Mr Diaz "straight back on the horse", rather than hiding him.
The Daily Telegraph discovered yesterday that it was in fact the national office of the party, not Mr Neeham, who made the disastrous decision to hide Greenway candidate Jaymes Diaz away from the cameras......
There have been other accusations that the NSW head office was asleep in devising a strategy to do enough to warn voters about not confusing a vote for the Liberal Democrats in the Senate with a vote for the Liberal Party.
The factional blame game also continues within the party, with several MPs blaming Right factional powerbroker David Clarke for his decision to back and defend Jaymes Diaz as the candidate for Greenway.
One Clarke supporter questioned what option Mr Clarke had when Mr Diaz and his father controlled 80 per cent of branch members in the area....
Andrew Nguyen has
claimed in an interview with Fairfax Media that Tony Abbott's campaign staff
physically escorted him away from an appearance by the then opposition leader
in Liverpool during the third week of the campaign.
"They told me
Andrew please go home, you can't be here," Mr Nguyen said.
"I was given no
reason, I was escorted to my car and they made sure I turned right towards my
[Cabramatta] office and didn't turn to come back to Westfield shopping
centre."
"We were treated
like second-class citizens. Me, [Jaymes Diaz in] Greenway and [Martin Zaiter
in] Paramatta.....
Mr Nguyen told Fairfax
the man who escorted him was called "Justin".
"I would say Justin
removed me. I looked like a criminal and he was a policeman removing me from
there."
A local Liberal Party
member active in the campaign confirmed to Fairfax it was Justin De Domenico,
who had been assigned by Liberal head office to supervise in Fowler.
"I saw Justin take
him away. It was all part of keeping candidates away from the media who they
thought might embarrass them like Diaz," the source said....
