A leaked review of Liberal Party membership records in WA has revealed apparent branch stacking and manipulation of state preselections.
In October the party engaged Perth financial services firm BDO to examine its membership records for the previous two financial years.
That report, distributed to Liberal Party state council members last night, has identified multiple party memberships being paid for using a single credit card as a widespread issue.
The review found there were 29 credit cards on file that were funding more than 10 party memberships each.
In one instance, a single card was used for 66 transactions.
The review also identified a number of occasions where multiple party members who were not related were listed as living at a single address — likely an "attempted manipulation of the local component of state preselections".
Reform 'vital': Wilson
The report was conducted in the wake of the party's abysmal performance at last year's state election.
WA Liberal Party president Richard Wilson said reforms to eradicate the behaviours from the party would be taken to the next state conference.
"Passing the proposed rule changes and constitutional reforms is absolutely vital to ensure the public sees we are cleaning up our internal governance and are committed to a successful rebuild ahead of the 2025 elections," he said.
Liberal state director Stuart Smith and deputy director Jesse Wolton had asked BDO to investigate three main areas of concern:
- Multiple membership renewals paid with the same credit card (or same person);
- Multiple non-family members registered at the same address; and
- Multiple branch transfers in a 12-month period.
Among the key findings in the report were that "multiple membership renewals on the same card appear to be frequent and widespread across party branches".
The practice of multiple unrelated people being listed as living at the same address did not appear to be widespread, nor did the practice of members transferring across party branches multiple times.
Members enrolled outside boundaries
But the report went on to detail "widespread party enrolment outside division boundaries".
Of the more than 9,000 memberships examined for the report, about a third were found to be living in a division different to that of their registered division.
The annual renewal fee for Liberal Party membership in WA is $25.
The report was based on information provided by the party in November, including discussions with Mr Smith and Mr Wotton, and BDO stressed that it had made no conclusions "as to whether any actions or breaches of policy or practice are unlawful".
Suggested reforms will be debated at the Liberal Party state conference next month.
It is understood these will include a requirement for members to actively confirm their wishes to remain a member each year.
This would prevent a scenario where an otherwise inactive member remains signed up simply because someone is paying their fees.
Another suggested reform is likely to be checking a member's listed residential address against the Australian electoral roll.
Such changes would require 75 per cent support to be adopted.
The leaked report, addressed to Stuart Smith, was dated December 22, 2021.
'The Clan' joked about branch stacking
If follows a damning internal Liberal Party review in the wake of its disastrous result in the 2021 state election.
That report highlighted instances where senior members had paid for multiple memberships, although it noted there might have been legitimate explanations for those payments.
It found one person had paid for 68 memberships and another had paid for 39 between July 15, 2020 and 2021.
The WA Liberals were also embarrassed by the leaking of 700 pages of WhatsApp messages from an informal party group naming themselves "The Clan".
Among the messages were jokes from members of the group about branch stacking.
The Liberal Party state council is due to meet this weekend.
It will be one of the first opportunities senior members of the WA party have had to officially discuss its performance at the federal election.
The Liberals lost four WA seats to the Labor Party and the previously blue-ribbon electorate of Curtin to independent, Kate Chaney.
'Focus on 2025': Honey
WA Liberal leader David Honey said he was looking forward to a positive outcome from the party's reform process.
"We need to demonstrate to Western Australians that our processes are open and accountable and ensure that individuals and groups do not have undue influence in the party," he said in a statement.
"We have two elections — state and federal — that will occur closely together in 2025.
"We need to implement the required reforms quickly and then focus our attention on developing good policies and identifying excellent candidates that properly represent their electorates."
Urgent overhaul of system needed: WA party president
The president of the WA Liberal Party, Richard Wilson, told ABC Perth the apparent branch-stacking behaviour was a result of a system that allowed it to happen.
"We have a system of rules which have been used by people for their own advantage," he said.
"What it shows is there's problems with the system that we have at the core of our membership and our preselection process, and we need to overhaul that as a matter of urgency in order to give the public faith that we are governing ourselves well."
Mr Wilson said while they had the means to identify anybody involved in branch stacking, that would not resolve the bigger issue.
"The problem with focusing on individuals who carry out this type of behaviour and ignoring the system that underpins it is, that if you don't change the system, it will simply result in other people performing the exact same activities."
