Fed: Crichton-Browne hits out at decision to replace 'idiot' MP

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-2006
Fed: Crichton-Browne hits out at decision to replace 'idiot' MP

By David Crawshaw

CANBERRA, Aug 24 AAP - West Australian Liberal MP Dennis Jensen is "an idiot" for losing
preselection after just one term as a parliamentarian, a former party powerbroker says.

Dr Jensen on Tuesday lost his party's endorsement for the Perth seat of Tangney to
Matt Brown, a former chief of staff to previous defence minister Robert Hill.

A physicist and nuclear energy advocate, Dr Jensen will appeal the decision, claiming
there were irregularities in the preselection vote.

Former Liberal senator Noel Crichton-Browne, a one-time powerbroker who was kicked
out of the party in 1996, said Dr Jensen was the victim of branch stacking - but still
blamed him for the decision.

He praised Dr Jensen's "valuable" contribution, but said he failed to tackle an underhanded
campaign by party rivals to snatch his preselection.

"In Western Australia, amongst some groups in the organisation, quality doesn't matter,
virtue doesn't matter and contribution doesn't matter," Mr Crichton-Browne told ABC Radio.

"It's more about stacking the branches and, at the first available opportunity, removing
the member if there's somebody else of their choice they wish to put in.

"When you've got senior officebearers of the party actively working in the branches
to replace the sitting member, quite apart from whether he deserves to be replaced or
not ... it's not difficult to replace the branches with people of your persuasion.

"In respect to Jensen, even when you have people working behind your back to stack
out your branches, only an idiot would lose his preselection in the very first term."

The campaign to replace Dr Jensen had been "deliberate and sustained", despite Prime
Minister John Howard's support for the rookie MP, he said.

Mr Crichton-Browne said the WA Liberal Party was in disarray and faced annihilation
at the next state election.

"It's in permanent decline, I think it's in utter decay," he said.

"The membership's a shambles, the records are a shambles and the party's a shambles."

Dr Jensen said today he would lodge an appeal against his disendorsement, and hoped
his case would be heard next week.

"I have got grounds because there were numerous irregularities," Dr Jensen said of
the preselection process.

Speaking later to ABC Radio, Dr Jensen would not rule out contesting Tangney as an
independent if his appeal failed, but said it was not appropriate to comment.

"I've got no comment on any of that - that's not an appropriate course of action, I
don't think," he said.

Dr Jensen said Mr Howard had told him he was disappointed with the decision but did
not want to interfere in the party's democratic processes.

He did not believe his strong advocacy of nuclear technology had cost him his preselection.

"No, I don't think it had any major impact at all, apart from maybe some people seeing
that I was seen as maybe a one-issue person, which is certainly not the truth," he said.

AAP dcr/mfh/evt/de

KEYWORD: JENSEN LEAD

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