2 April 2008

Kiddie Libs in Forgery or Foolery

| Joe Canberran
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Normally student politics bores me to tears but sometimes you find a gem. This story is rolled gold. If it’s true that is…

Over on The Other Cheek, the blog’s author, Andrew Landeryou, has published an exposé, allegedly penned by an anonymous Liberal insider, recounting the failed attempt by now former ANU Liberal Party President to hold on to power;

A branch of the Liberal Party, at the Australian National University in Canberra is embroiled in a forgery scandal where one of its most senior members appears to have falsified the branch constitution to maintain his hold on power.

Former ANU Liberal Club President Aaron McDonnell, when faced with a hostile executive last year falsely altered his club’s constitution to help secure his power and privilege.

The article is quite detailed and the breadth of opinion and venom in the comments worthy of RiotACT, my only doubt is if it’s true at all. It has all the hall marks of a GOOD Aprils Fool’s joke, being detailed enough and just believable enough to possibly be true. As well as publishing the story on April Fools Day, Landeryou even goes so far to title his story “Fool’s Day Forgery Frolics”.

Are there any Lib party members out there brave enough to confirm the story?

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Oops….did a Gooogle and the Liberal’s Director’s name is Andy Heath aka Andrew Heath. He was the guy that undermined their star-candidate Troy Williams. He certainly has form….no wonder Stanhope is a hot favourite to win again.

allegations that the constitution of the ANU liberal club was illegitimately altered are definitely in the hands of division

What exactly is “division”? The Liberal party’s Gestapo?

And does ANU Union hold copies of their afiliated clubs respective constitutions? I would have thought that they did.

Political parties are the dodgest organisations in the country, IMHO.

This story is true and is currently being investigated by the ACT Party. The real question is whether Aaron acted alone. Why didn’t anyone notice until now? Where was last years executive?

Meanwhile the word is that new President Duncan McDonald is moving to take the club rogue and disafiliate from the Party, meaning that there are no checks and safeguards at all. I think there is more to this story that even those with some inside knowledge don’t know.

Dichromate said :

… weird, it says my first comment is “awaiting moderation”

Dichromate,

it was moderated cause you said a bad word. I only just noticed it in the mod queue now.

Gungahlin Al2:29 pm 02 Apr 08

People got funny ideas of the definition of “power”…
As for “trial by blog” – sunlight is always a good sanitiser.

At the very least I can say with certainty that allegations that the constitution of the ANU liberal club was illegitimately altered are definitely in the hands of division, along with the supposed proof, which consists of the two versions of the constitution, sent out by email by the 2006 executive and the 2007, and a version provided by the 2006 president. That there is some issues regarding the constitution is a certainty, the 2007/2008 executive didn’t give any actual answers at the AGM, basically saying that there were issues and that they were using the right version now
The division has know since a bit before the Annual general meeting a couple of weeks ago, causing Wal to show up at the AGM.
If the allegations prove to be true, those involved face at the very least suspension from the party proper, due to the ANU liberal club actually being a special interest branch. Heads may well roll over this.

I’ll try and post my *actual* comment again, since a moderator doesn’t seem to be around to fix my other one.
Yes, its definitely true at least insofar as it isn’t a fabrication by Landeryou.
Wally Barnier, the acting head of the ACT division right now was at the Annual General Meeting, and a bunch of people at the meeting did make noise about the constitution, though they didn’t achieve much in the way of convincing people
Naturally the election itself was a wipeout, most of the elections were along the lines of 35 to around 6 votes. My guess is that they(the leakers) didn’t bother doing any stacking. They couldn’t have thought they could win anyway, but from the look of it they didn’t even make an effort. I guess making a scene was their goal and they’ve succeeded in that, dragging the club through the mud all the while. Not that the ANU liberal club was ever target of admiration from anyone not intent on using it to recruit people for their faction in the young liberals, which is the main interest people in the senior party have in it.

Indeed “if it is true”.

I do not know a great deal about the workings of the local Libs but you’d have to be living in a bomb-shelter if you were not aware of a civil war that was taking place in their ranks.

The sad thing about this blog is that it seems to steam from a disloyal Liberal – in this case a baby Liberal student.

It would be nice if Mr McDonnell had an opportunity to give his side before his name is dragged through chat rooms. Another case of trial-by-blog.

A friend, who is a Left member of the student union informed me over the weekend that the ANU Liberal students were about to disaffiliate from the ACT Liberals and sack Gary Humphries as their Patron due to the “contempt” and “disloyalty” the ACT Liberals, the Liberal’s head office (Director, Andrew Heath) and Humphries (especially his office) are dishing out to them.

Certainly, another slap in the face for the ACT Liberals.

… weird, it says my first comment is “awaiting moderation”

To clarify, its my understanding that the version provided by the 2006 president is the same as the one emailed out by the 2006 executive before the 2007 Annual General Meeting.

Just to be fair, I should state that a lot of what I know about this I’ve heard from people who probably have an interest in it, but the I’m 100% sure about who was/wasn’t at the AGM, because I was there(but not a voting member), and that there is certainly some issue(s) division is looking into in regards to the clubs constitution.

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