Where is the corruption?

It seems an immutable law that if the public face of a scandal is not necessarily corruption; the dirty deeds are not far below the surface. In the case of the hapless John Brogden those dirty deeds are quickly becoming evident, if not prominent.

The real corruption in this issue is the manipulation of Liberal candidate selection and pre-selection threats by the ‘Christian’ right wing power faction (the Uglies) of the NSW Liberal party. Before NSW voters get too steamed up about their voting preference in future they might consider that the choices have already been made for them, behind the scenes.

John Brogden, his predecessor Kerry Chikarovski and deputy Barry O’Farrel are little more than bunnies in the great power play of the NSW Liberal Party. While the Carr government held supremacy these bunnies were allowed to keep the leadership seats warm, and entertain their fantasies.

Member of the NSW upper house, a committed Catholic, David Clarke, is the mastermind behind the present rise of the Right. Though little known before the Brogden affair, his is a vision, a fanatical vision of complete right-wing dominance of the Liberal Party.

Clarke, a conservative Catholic MP, and his staffer, the federal president of the Young Liberals, Alex Hawke, have formed a powerful bloc in the party's executive and council and it is in a strong position to influence the preselection of sitting members.

Clarke, the zealot, resurrected to crumbling right wing of the party and has astutely molded it to his own vision of Christian goodness. In true Christian fashion Clarke and his Uglies set about stacking branches, including the Young Liberal Movement, with follows who share their own warped views.

This, it should be said, was no clandestine operation. Indeed, riots and police intervention, unheard of events in the staid Liberal Party, became a feature of the push.

The torment of enduring Carr’s evil incumbency and the leadership of his less than fanatical colleagues must have been enormous. Carr’s resignation as Premier opened up the opportunity for the Liberals to stake their claim at last.

Brogden’s recent behaviour was a godsend to the Uglies. He could fall on his own sword without undue help from them, just a small media tweak here and there. But they already had enough to destroy him with a direct assault if that had been needed.

The additional information merely served to display the viciousness of these so called Christians. Brogden had jumped, but they kept hurling rocks down on the crumbling body. Surely revenge played a role in that disgusting spectacle, but there was more to it.

Barry O’Farrel, long time deputy, rightly saw his opportunity and duty to relace his fallen leader, but he is not an Ugly! O’Farrel is respected by colleagues and no doubt had the numbers. He needed to be persuaded to back off. The Uglies were intent on showing him and others that they would go to any length to take over the party. Even to destroy a life!

Clarke’s Uglies, including the newly ultra-conservative Young Liberals do not represent the aspirations of the people of NSW. I doubt they ever represent the aspirations of good Christians. They are vicious fanatics, intent only on forcing their views on the wider community.

While they might only see virtue in their actions they have blinded themselves to the innate corruption of branch stacking and vote rigging. Inciting violence and hate might be behaviours of the Christian Church through history, but they are in no way acceptable as Christ like behaviour.
It is difficult to rationalize the corrupt with the virtuous, for any purpose or end.