Divided party: Liberal branch motion wants leakers found and punished

The internal turmoil in the Canberra Liberals is continuing to dog the party with one branch to debate a motion calling for an inquiry into leaks to the media and demanding those responsible be disciplined.

A section of the agenda for the 27 February meeting of the Ginninderra branch sighted by Region lists two policy motions that reflect ongoing anger at the treatment of former Ginninderra MLA Elizabeth Kikkert and the Liberals’ lead Senate candidate Jacob Vadakkedathu, and the public airing of internal party matters.

The first motion calls upon the party’s Management Committee to determine how internal security footage of Elizabeth Kikkert at the division office was provided to the media.

The conservative Ms Kikkert was disendorsed last September ahead of the ACT election for allegedly bullying a party staff member and breaching the Electoral Act to do with donations and spending caps.

A snip of security footage of the alleged incident with the staff member, purportedly showing her lashing out with a mobile phone at someone in the division office, was shared among party members as evidence of her poor behaviour and later emerged in the media.

Ms Kikkert denied all the allegations but ended up leaving the party to run as a Family First candidate. She has since put her hand up for the Senate.

The second motion says the Ginninderra Electorate branch notes its outrage over the continuous leaking of internal party matters to the media.

It lists a number of instances, including the Kikkert video, where it says the leaked content is directly connected to members of the Management Committee, senior members of the party and/or divisional staff.

These include details of the 2023 ’empty chair’ AGM, where a majority of members would not support hard right John Cziesla as president when he was left as the sole candidate after now-current president Nick Tyrrell had to withdraw due to a family crisis.

The meeting saw a clean-out of the old guard on the Management Committee in what was seen as a victory for an alliance of moderate and so-called pragmatic right forces and the then parliamentary leadership of Elizabeth Lee.

An appeal from Mr Cziesla failed, and Mr Tyrrell was elected president in another vote on 28 February 2024.

The motion also refers to the leaking of details of the Divisional Council of 1 February 2025, where Mr Vadakkedathu survived an attempt by some members to have the party strip him of his Senate endorsement.

These included the existence of the petition seeking to disendorse Mr Vadakkedathu, internal discussions with senior officials, ‘unsubstantiated’ allegations, emails between Mr Tyrrell and the Management Committee, and continued commentary after the event.

Dissatisfaction with Mr Vadakkedathu’s candidacy was aired in the media, including poor campaign performance and visibility, alleged branch stacking and the alleged auctioning without permission of a cricket bat signed by three Australian captains.

Mr Vadakkathu denied all allegations.

The motion says the Ginninderra Electorate branch calls upon the Management Committee to establish a fully independent inquiry into the leaking, with a report tabled at the next Divisional Council.

The members responsible for the leaks should be disciplined, it reads.

The Canberra Liberals are regrouping after another ACT election loss, and it appears likely that the party will not retake the Senate seat lost by Zed Seselja to David Pocock, who has consolidated his position to the extent that Labor’s Katy Gallagher sees herself as the underdog to take the top spot.

Many party members and commentators now consider Mr Vadakkedathu to be out of the running.