Party insider says Hawke is hell-bent on power
By Bonny Symons-Brown and Susanna DunkerleyThu Oct 1 20:56:26 EST 2009
Thu Oct 1 10:56:26 UTC 2009
CANBERRA, Oct 1 AAP - Federal Liberal MP Alex Hawke is a megalomaniac, desperate to shut down potential threats to his position in the party, a Liberal source says.
Mr Hawke, the member for Mitchell, called police to his Castle Hill office in Sydney's northwest around 6pm (AEST) on Wednesday after he said a mob had stormed into a meeting of the Baulkham Hills and Hills Young Liberals branches.
"I wasn't going to have a bar of any violent pushing or shoving, it's just not on," Mr Hawke, a former NSW Young Liberals president, told AAP on Thursday.
"You can imagine 60 people getting into a room that caters for 20, everyone yelling and people being pushed through the door.
"It would have descended into a series of punch-ups, so I had to call the police."
But a Liberal source said the people standing outside were aspiring new Young Liberals and that Mr Hawke barred them because he realised he didn't have the numbers inside to reject their applications.
The source said Mr Hawke was reluctant to let the branches grow because new members, who may be aligned with his inter-factional enemy and former boss NSW upper house Liberal MP David Clarke, could end up threatening his position.
"It's all about a power struggle between himself and David Clarke," the source told AAP.
"He sees David as the old school, and he wants to be the person down in Canberra that calls all the shots, and he doesn't want anyone to get in his way."
Meanwhile, fellow Liberal Party member and radio announcer Gareth McCray dubbed Mr Hawke a "young upstart" following the fracas, which his two children were caught up in.
Mr McCray said his daughter Laura, 20, and son Jacob, 18, had recently joined the Young Liberals and were trying to attend their first branch meeting.
"Alex Hawke had denied them access ... and one or two of his heavies were standing at the door preventing these people from coming in at all," he told AAP.
"Obviously, there was some sort of factional issue that Alex was paranoid about.
"For him to ask no more members to come in, clearly there must have been something going on that I wasn't aware of that had to do with the different factions within the Liberal Party - I'm assuming."
Mr McCray denied the confrontation had been about to descend into a brawl.
"There was no reason to ring the police, because there was an orderly assemblage of 20 members trying to get into a meeting," he said.
"There was no shouting or carrying on at all."
Mr McCray said the incident had left him so incensed that he was thinking about renouncing his Liberal Party membership.
"After last night's fiasco with this young upstart, who I thought six months ago had some potential, I'm quite prepared to tear my membership up if the Liberal Party is not prepared to take some sort of disciplinary action against this man," Mr McCray said.
Mr Hawke wants an investigation too, but of a different kind.
He's asked the party's state director, Mark Neeham, to inquire into Liberal Party members who were present and their behaviour.
"(And) it is my hope that those persons who orchestrated the events of last night are dealt with swiftly by the Liberal Party and authorities," he said.
A police spokesman said a number of people were spoken to by police at the scene but no arrests were made.
No further action will be taken by police at this stage.
