14 July 2020

Liberals dump Kurrajong candidate

| Ian Bushnell
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Vijay Dubey

Vijay Dubey: forced out.

A Canberra Liberals candidate appears to have been forced out of running in this October’s Legislative Assembly election for not sticking to the party line.

A party statement said small businessman and teacher Vijay Dubey had today resigned as a Liberal candidate for Kurrajong for the forthcoming election.

The statement said the party was confident that it will have an outstanding candidate to replace him soon.

Mr Dubey had apparently gone off message during campaigning and relations between him and the party had been deteriorating for some time.

It had got to the point that the party was starving him of campaign funds.

Another Liberal candidate for Kurrajong is believed to have complained two weeks ago that the party machine was treating Mr Dubey badly and that his financial contribution to the party was not being reflected in campaign support.

Some party members are also believed to be in fear of recrimination if they speak out on the matter.

It is believed the party had issued an ultimatum to Mr Dubey that he resign or be disendorsed.

Mr Dubey denies he was pushed, saying he resigned for personal reasons and that he will remain a team player. But he has not ruled out running in the election as an independent.

He ran as an independent in Ginninderra in 2016.

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HiddenDragon5:20 pm 15 Jul 20

“Mr Dubey had apparently gone off message during campaigning…”

Could be interesting – we all know what happened in Oxley in 1996…..

John Hutch, the Labor party is also running a very diverse and capable team in all electorates from many different backgrounds. Canberra voters are very socially progressive and the Canberra Liberals’ candidates come from very culturally conservative backgrounds. From my my discussions with some of them when they are out at shopping centres they don’t have a very good understanding of ACT politics and local policy issues.

The issue is anyone with any real intellectual property talent is a threat to the tightly controlled internal power structure run by mediocre hacks and number counters, so are promptly bullied out.

Fair point, Labor should also be commended for having diversity of team members. Though Liberals had been behind in team diversity compared with Labor, Labor had been known to be very poor in that regard before. For example, out of the 53 people who served as ministers or parliamentary secretaries in the federal Labor Hawke governments between 1983 and 1991, only 4 were women.

I must say Sol on my side of politics I haven’t seen that. Anyone with talent is certainly supported and that can be seen in the strength of Labor’s candidates, especially in the last 2 elections. Maybe that is why we have seen some ex-Labor members changing sides and running for the Liberals in this and the last number of elections.

Yes John Hutch and the Hawke government saw the lack of women’s representation as a problem, anointing Labor’s first female senator Susan Ryan as the first ever Minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. Susan Ryan was also a founding member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby ACT branch. She was also involved in the creation of the Federal Sex Discrimination Act, 1984, the Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunities in Employment) Act 1986 and the Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987. Labor and its Labor women are very proud of these achievements.

Capital Retro2:02 pm 15 Jul 20

With no disrespect intended, Susan Ryan’s appointment as “Minister assisting Minister” was a symbolic one to address a perception of “lack of women’s representation” but it qualified her well for future similar appointments. I can’t recall anything outstanding that she achieved but certainly Labor women have although those achievements have not been mentioned.

I’m referring to the Canberra Liberals specifically. It’s talent pool is pretty thin as factional control by right wing reactionaries has won out. Branches are routinely stacked and factional loyalty enforced. Dissent is not tolerated. It’s not the “Liberal” party people think it is.

Despite the loss of Vijay Dubey, ACT Liberals have had many very prominent diverse candidates and members of ethnic heritage, such as Krishna Nadimpalli, Kacey Lam, Jacob Vadakkedathu, Elizabeth Lee MLA, Ignatius Rozario and possibly others. It can be a good example for greater ethnic heritage diversity in other state and federal Liberal representation. ACT Liberals should be commended for being inclusive of diverse candidates in general.

Theres the problem. Voters do not give a rats about the diversity or ethnicity of candidates. They just want intelligent competent people & not party hacks.

I think it can be both. There can be more diverse representation based on merit. I don’t find tokenism and quotas to be empowering or meaningful.

Capital Retro6:32 pm 15 Jul 20

That’s the way it used to be but that is now part of the cancelled culture.

I had a good chat with him at the local shops while he was out campaigning. His understanding of policy issues in the ACT was nil… surely he was the ideal liberal candidate!?!?

Capital Retro9:24 am 15 Jul 20

He was obviously going to challenge the current leadership of the Liberals and that’s why they got rid of him.

Got it in one I reckon CR!

I beg to differ. I think it only took a few public appearances for his incapability of winning/ leading to become abundantly clear.

The only thing this bloke was challenging was the current title holder of lowest IQ in the assembly. Actually, with that in mind, maybe you are right.

That didn’t stop the Canberra Liberals strongly supporting Elizabeth Kikkert, who has no education or experience whatsoever. Perhaps she felt threatened then.

Capital Retro5:19 pm 18 Jul 20

A candidate with no education would be worth looking at.

What better way to ensure a balanced understanding of all of societies complex problems than by rulling out anyone with any form of formal proven capability.

I hope he runs as an independent in Kurrajong, he’s a good guy treated poorly by a party run by reactionary thugs.

Steven Bailey12:49 pm 18 Jul 20

I think I recognise that sentence from somewhere…? 🙂

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