Deja vu for Liberals as candidate woes detract from policy announcements

It had all started so swimmingly, but for the Canberra Liberals, it’s been a case of deja vu this week.

In 2020, a Liberal candidate in Kurrajong had to pull out of the race due to comments about Welcome to Country ceremonies and ACT Policing being influenced by a homosexual agenda.

Peter McKay was shown the door, with the party saying his views did not align with theirs.

Four years later Ginninderra candidate Darren Roberts is in the spotlight for posting contentious political comments as Bert Poppins on Facebook. These, too, are not the views of the Canberra Liberals, but according to Leader Elizabeth Lee, it’s too late to act against him, with the ballot locked in on Wednesday.

The Liberals really could not afford to lose him after failing to replace the disendorsed Elizabeth Kikkert on the Ginninderra ticket.

The conservative Liberal was booted out earlier this month over alleged bullying of party staff and breaches of the Electoral Act due to donation irregularities.

She has denied all allegations and accused the party of being dishonest.

This week a very short video was leaked to the media purported to show an altercation in the party office with a staffer but Mrs Kikkert says it’s misleading and called for the whole security video to be released to show the full context.

The top-polling Liberal in Ginninderra’s 2020 vote, she is now lining up with the ultra-conservative Family First.

So in the Belconnen-based seat, the Liberals will field only four candidates, including one who holds views the party disavows, their top vote-getter is off the ticket, and the wash is threatening to spill over into the general campaign.

It is worth noting that Mrs Kikkert was allied with former deputy leader Jeremy Hanson, and Ms Lee dumped both from the front bench last year.

That was part of Ms Lee’s repositioning of the party to the centre, much needed if the Liberals were ever going to have a chance of winning government in progressive Canberra.

It took attention away from vote-losing social issues and put it on more competitive ground such as the economy, housing, health and education.

Ms Lee started strongly with headline announcements on the convention centre, city stadium and plans for a new town centre at Kowen Forest.

But two weeks into the campaign and it’s now all about Roberts and Kikkert and the Canberra Liberals’ credibility.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr didn’t hesitate to put the boot in, calling them a rabble, adding that deeply conservative views were endemic in the Canberra Liberals.

On Wednesday, when media were clamouring for answers from Ms Lee, she appeared to go missing, leaving a hapless Deputy Leanne Castley to face a grilling when all she wanted to talk about was elective surgery waiting lists.

Ms Lee says she had other commitments on the day but all that did was fuel speculation and give air to the story for another day, detracting from policy announcements.

As Leader, she should have cauterised the wound on the day and put it behind her.

As it is, the Liberals still have a problem in Ginninderra, with a candidate Ms Lee would rather not have in the party room and another she might reluctantly have to negotiate with after election night.

The good news for the Liberals is that it is still early in the campaign and the caravan will roll on. But it is a couple of days they would rather forget.