Alex Hawke (Liberal), the Federal Member for Mitchell, allowed his electoral office to be used as the venue for a meeting of Young Liberals.Do other groups, say the local Greens, also get to hold their get-togethers in the office?
NSW police dismissed as a media stunt an attempt to drag them into the internal faction wars of the Liberal Party (ABC News).
The Herald reported that Hawke, who was described as a megalomaniac by a Liberal source , was desperate to shut down potential threats to his position in the party.Hawke called police to his Castle Hill office in Sydney's northwest around 6pm on Wednesday after he said a mob had stormed into a meeting of the Baulkham Hills and Hills Young Liberals branches.A Liberal source said the people standing outside were aspiring new Young Liberals and that Hawke barred them because he realised he didn't have the numbers inside to reject their applications. The source said Hawke was reluctant to let the branches grow because new members, who may be aligned with his inter-factional enemy and former boss NSW upper house Liberal MP David Clarke, could end up threatening his position.
"It's all about a power struggle between himself and David Clarke," the source said.
"He sees David as the old school, and he wants to be the person down in Canberra that calls all the shots, and he doesn't want anyone to get in his way."
Fellow Liberal Party member and radio announcer Gareth McCray dubbed Hawke a "young upstart" following the fracas, which his two children were caught up in.
McCray said his daughter Laura, 20, and son Jacob, 18, had recently joined the Young Liberals and were trying to attend their first branch meeting.
"Alex Hawke had denied them access ... and one or two of his heavies were standing at the door preventing these people from coming in at all.
"Obviously, there was some sort of factional issue that Alex was paranoid about.
"For him to ask no more members to come in, clearly there must have been something going on that I wasn't aware of that had to do with the different factions within the Liberal Party - I'm assuming."
McCray denied the confrontation had been about to descend into a brawl.
"There was no reason to ring the police, because there was an orderly assemblage of 20 members trying to get into a meeting.
"There was no shouting or carrying on at all."
McCray said the incident had left him so incensed that he was thinking about renouncing his Liberal Party membership.
"After last night's fiasco with this young upstart, who I thought six months ago had some potential, I'm quite prepared to tear my membership up if the Liberal Party is not prepared to take some sort of disciplinary action against this man," McCray said.
Hawke wants an investigation too, but of a different kind.
He's asked the party's state director, Mark Neeham, to inquire into Liberal Party members who were present and their behaviour.
"(And) it is my hope that those persons who orchestrated the events of last night are dealt with swiftly by the Liberal Party and authorities," he said.
A police spokesman said a number of people were spoken to by police at the scene but no arrests were made.
No further action will be taken by police at this stage.
Sources: ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald
The NSW North Coast has a strong and proud Italian connection. From the creation of a new homeland at Little Italy in the Clarence Valley by a group of shipwrecked Italian families, originally on their way to a new life in South America, through to Italian workers in Northern Rivers cane fields turned farmers themselves.
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