18 August 2007

ACT Liberal President to Step Down

| jemmy
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The ABC is reporting here that Gary Kent is standing down as Liberal President. A bit of a surprise, but given the tensions this week with some MLAs openly defying him, perhaps he has lost an internal power struggle. Stefaniak on the ABC says he is not completely surprised.

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If this is the same Gary Kent who worked with me many years ago, I think his having attained and held for some years a serious position constitutes an indictment of the local Libs. He struck me then as even more irritating, bumptious and arrogant than the average young person of the wealthy origins of which he boasted. (I was not fussed about him then, because most people get over it, although usually before their mid-twenties).

The Lib talent pool must be shallow to a level measured in nanometres, and not many of them. They may even be worse than the goons and mindless factional warriors who infest the local ALP.

BeyondThought11:23 pm 18 Aug 07

Cathy

From Crikey – 19 Aug 2007:
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20070719-Tips-and-rumours.html

About the internal war within the ACT Liberal party. It’s incorrect to say it’s a Management Committee versus Parliamentary party fight, but two factions aligned to MLAs Smyth and Mulcahy respectively. Bill Stefaniak is simply the nice guy in the middle who cobbled together four (count ’em, all four) votes to get the Opposition Leader’s gig. Party President, Gary Kent, is aligned to Mulcahy. About the vote itself, it’s extremely unlikey that Alistair Coe or his mates stuffed the ballot. He didn’t need to, the Northern Electorate Branch is 100% stacked out Kent Country. Why on earth do something as risky and obvious as vote tampering when they can just do it the old fashioned way? It’s Gary Kent’s last term as President as there are no longer the numbers to keep him there. After seven or eight years Kent has accumulated too many enemies. The search is on for a replacement. Stefaniak and Senator Garry Humphries are lobbying for Troy Williams, the endorsed Liberal candidate for Fraser. Needing a swing something above 10% to win, he’s sure to be available, but was reported in the media as not wanting the job. Support from Stefaniak and Humphries is hard to fathom as Williams is a known associate of Kent. The Party has other concerns as its new Director is barely out of school. Andrew Heath is a boy in a man’s job and lacks support from key sectors within the party. Save the lot and bring on federal intervention!

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