Voters will crucify WA Liberals for unholy war inside party

There is one stand-out reason some senior WA Liberals are becoming more and more concerned about the evangelical incursion into their political party.

Mainstream community thinking has moved on from the unwavering, ultra-conservative scriptures penned more than 2000 years ago.

The emphatic result of the same-sex marriage debate and overwhelming public sentiment about voluntary euthanasia is evidence of a seismic schism between biblical doctrines and conventional acceptance. The majority of us do not, nor expect anyone else, to live our lives based on the premise that we exist only to serve God and must do all we can to prepare for Christ’s second coming.

And the prevailing mindset of most does not support other unquestioning beliefs of evangelicalism.

The idea that you must be “reborn” to be “cleansed from sin” or that “all men are spiritually lost” and must “speak in other tongues” to become true believers, is seen as religious extremism to ordinary folk. But these are the moral Pentecostal cornerstones, for example, of Globalheart Church members who now have control over at least five Liberal branches in the northern suburbs.

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Any political party trying to win the majority of voters at the silent centre of noisy left/right politics understands why religious zealotry is a turn off. Depending on who you talk to, given most people in politics are motivated by self-interest, the Liberals are either approaching a crossroads over the evangelical push for influence in the northern and southern suburbs branches, or they are already past the tipping point.

Plenty of party players will offer background on the battles being fought inside Liberal branches and divisions, but few want to go public for fear of the powerbrokers who control the numbers.

Long-standing Liberal Party member Deidre Willmott has been a chief of staff at the highest levels of government, was chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry until recently, is a proud Anglican and is not one for sensationalism.

Therefore, her view that evangelical forces were gaining control of the party should matter in Liberal land and party leaders, like Mike Nahan, and other stalwarts should take note. Willmott talked freely about “those people” from the religious right “getting the numbers”.

“The party runs the risk that a narrow-based agenda will be the priority of the party and make it irrelevant to the broad base it has represented,” she said. “I have no problem with Christians, I am one myself, but I just don’t think a socially conservative agenda is part of a mainstream Liberal Party.”

Following on from weekend news about members of another evangelical church, True North, nominating for control of the party’s Sorrento-Duncraig branch, there was much chatter on social media about the so-called “alliance” of Liberal powerbrokers.

Perhaps, given the topic, southern suburbs Christian warrior and Upper House Liberal Nick Goiran, his northern suburbs parliamentary colleague Peter Collier and Federal Liberal minister Mathias Cormann should be dubbed the Holy Trinity. Highly placed Liberals insist they control the party’s dominant faction and do so with the help of scores of members from Pentecostal and Baptist churches.

Federal Liberal MP Ian Goodenough is one politician who does not shy away from confirming the support he receives from the evangelical community, including Globalheart and True North churches. But he will not concede that the systematic approach Globalheart members have taken to winning key positions in Liberal branches differs greatly from other followers of religions getting involved in the party.

“There were members of multiple faiths and denominations present at the Sorrento-Duncraig annual general meting on Saturday,” he said. “Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Catholics and Anglicans. So it was a little unfair to be selective in naming certain groups.”

I challenged him to name which of those faiths had members from just one of its churches in control of five neighbouring Liberal Party branches? He was adamant that any tensions were about personalities rather than religion.

“The real issue is the number of out of area, non-local members and allegedly falsified addresses, which are inconsistent with the electoral roll,” Mr Goodenough said.

Before the Sorrento-Duncraig branch AGM, he complained that the East Perth venue for the meeting was “deliberately engineered” to discourage his northern suburbs supporters from attending.

With WA membership believed to be around the 6000 mark, and an ominous Federal election looming, there has never been a more important time for mainstream Liberals to rise up.