Labor dobs in CLP

TERRITORY Labor has declared all-out war on the Country Liberal Party’s existence, urging an audit of its registration by the Australian Electoral Commission.

In a statement to the Sunday Territorian, Territory Labor president Erina Early said the demise of the CLP “isn’t a loss for Territorians” and urged the AEC to audit the party. It comes after the NT News revealed on Saturday that even high-profile CLP members were mulling over whether an NT branch of the Liberal Party should take over.

TERRITORY Labor has declared all-out war on the Country Liberal Party’s existence, urging an audit of its registration by the Australian Electoral Commission.

In a statement to the Sunday Territorian, Territory Labor president Erina Early said the demise of the CLP “isn’t a loss for Territorians” and urged the AEC to audit the party.

The NT News revealed on Saturday that even high-profile CLP members were mulling over whether an NT branch of the Liberal Party should take over.

Under new laws introduced last year, a political party can only be registered if it has either a sitting parliamentarian in Canberra, or more than 1500 members.

But CLP insiders have said they doubt the party has even 600 members at present.

It also lost its only representative in Canberra after Senator Sam McMahon quit the party a week ago.

Ms Early said it would be “unconscionable for the AEC to turn a blind eye to the legal issues facing the CLP”.

“If they don’t meet the requirements of the Act, they must be deregistered,” she said.

“(The CLP) are just a mouthpiece for their mates in Canberra.”

CLP president Jamie De Brenni has consistently said he is “very confident” the party will run in the 2022 poll.

“We will go into the next federal election with CLP candidates and we will be compliant,” Mr De Brenni said.

Speaking before Labor’s statement, AEC Commissioner Tom Rogers said the organisation could audit the status of political parties when it suspected they would fail to meet criteria for registration.

But Mr Rogers, who went to lengths to avoid singling out any particular political party, also said rival organisations could “write to us” with their concerns.

“One thing we don’t lack is intelligence from other parties about what other parties are doing,” he said.

An audit of the CLP would have to start within weeks to be completed before the start of the federal election, when it would be suspended.

If the audit was not complete before the election was called, the CLP would retain its party status.

One former high-ranking member of the party organisation, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they suspected the CLP’s membership list included people who had died.

“The membership list is woefully managed,” they said.

They said they could not see “any way around (the CLP) being deregistered”.

“They’ve never had 1500 members, the most would be 600,” they said.

“We were losing 70 members a year while in government,” they added, referring to the CLP’s stint in office between 2012 and 2016.

The former insider said the CLP would not be able to use an “association” with the Nationals to get over the 1500member threshold.

“(The CLP constitution) clearly states in three separate points that they’re an independent party and they’re not to change that,” they said.

ONE THING WE DON’T LACK IS INTELLIGENCE FROM OTHER PARTIES ABOUT WHAT OTHER PARTIES ARE DOING

AEC COMMISSIONER TOM ROGERS