The seedy side of the NSW Liberal Party
Addconsistently get pre-selected by the NSW branch of the Liberal Party?
Former Party insider Father Kevin Lee
answers this question by showing us the seedy underbelly of the NSW
Libs, including the parts played by Bill Heffernan, Tony Abbott, the
faceless men and women and the influential Catholic cult — Opus Dei.
A PRIEST, I get asked a lot of questions from ‘What’s a good saint’s
name for my Confirmation’ to ‘Should I have a burial or cremation for my
father?’ or more recently ‘Do you know someone in the Philippines I
could marry?’
The latest of a series of serious questions I received since leaving
priesthood to embark on a career in politics was from a Twitter follower
asking:
"Who should I vote for?”
You would think my answer would be a spontaneous one, but I have to be honest and admit — I don’t know.
I used to think with absolute certainty that the Liberal Party were
going to walk it in on September 7. That was why I joined them. I wanted
to be part of that winning team. But now I am not so sure.
Since joining the Party and being involved in party politics, I can
tell you it’s not what you see in the glossy covered brochures. Let me
tell you my story from the beginning.
TONY ABBOTT, RAY KING AND A POLITICAL BEGINNING
While anticipating my days as a Catholic priest were coming to a natural conclusion, I was encouraged by my close friend, Superintendent Ray King, to venture into politics.
I met Ray in 2007 in my role as regional police chaplain when he was
Commander at Fairfield. At that time, he was going through some of his
own personal difficulties which I was helping him to cope with. Although
we emptied quite a few bottles of wine together, I managed to get Ray
to lift his head and look up to God as a way of finding direction in his
life.
welcoming me to his office, Tony sat back in his desk chair and put his
hands behind his head, confidently exposing his perspiring underarms.
While we were in the seminary, we studied the same Allan Pease body language videos in which he taught prospective leaders:
“Confident people will always expose themselves and open
up when they are seated, while nervous, shy or introverted people tend
to hunch forward, cross their arms or hold their hands in their laps.”
I wondered if Tony was displaying this false bravado as part of what
he had learnt about leadership while preparing for priesthood? Whatever
the case, at that point I was in awe of him, since we had walked a
similar path — albeit he with far greater personal success.
The next thing that struck me about Tony was, for a potential future
Prime Minister and leader of the nation, he stammered quite a bit. There
were very few sentences that he didn’t started with “Ah…” He perhaps
picked up this linguistic impediment from John Howard, who also
vocalised his responses with similar hesitation.
Anyway, we had a fairly casual conversation in which, for people who
had only really spoken once before, I was astonished at the amount of
trust he quickly bestowed on me. We discussed many personal topics,
particularly relating to people we both remembered from our seminary
days at Manly.
We naturally discussed celibacy and he expressed candid openness that
the expectation of a life without sex was a factor in his decision not
to pursue priesthood, but “it certainly wasn’t the deal breaker”.
The assertive Rhodes scholar and former boxer was not considered
suitable pastoral material, despite being a student who achieved high
distinctions in his assignments. Perhaps this was because he thought for
himself rather than saying ‘Amen’ to the establishment, which we both
agreed was full of imposters — “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
One of his Philosophy lecturers, Father Gerry Gleeson (son of the Chief Justice of the High Court, Murray Gleeson Q.C.) who was also my spiritual director, remarked to me once:
“Tony Abbott is one of a very few people I awarded high
distinctions to then had to write the comment: ‘Next time read the
prescribed texts!’”
Tony marvelled at the longevity of my virginity, that I had managed
to protect for forty six years. “I don’t know how you do it! I couldn’t
do it,” he said with a laugh.
Our originally timetabled thirty minute meeting was extended as he
personally called his other appointments on his mobile to cancel. I was
flattered that he wanted to prolong our conversation and talk further
about my political possibilities and he expressed an eager desire of
utilising me in the upcoming election.
He told me:
“If you had come forward earlier, we might have been
sitting in Canberra right now. You could have beaten Bradbury yourself.
We really needed that seat.”
I assured him “we will win it next time” and reiterated my request to represent the area in which I had actually been born.
“Ah, I don’t think that can happen, Kev. They’ve already
completed the pre-selection process. You might think that the leader of
the party would have the power to choose who represents us in
government, but I don’t. It’s all up to branches and the pre-selectors
and, in the case of Fiona Scott, I think they’ve got it wrong. But we
can’t change that. Well, I’d be reluctant to intervene.”
He didn’t say he wouldn’t intervene, or that he couldn’t, so ‒ ever
the optimist ‒ I kind of hoped he still would see the logic of choosing a
community leader with proven commitment to represent the constituents,
rather than a woman with very little public profile.
When asked what attracted me to politics, I told Tony the main reason
was because I had already decided to leave ministry (due to an
inability to embrace the Church’s hypocritical attitude to contemporary
morality).
I told Tony I had decided to look for a partner in marriage.
“No!” he said adamantly.
“Don’t leave the priesthood. You have to campaign as an active,
currently serving priest. It would have a better impact than a former,
disaffected or ousted priest. Your current credibility would be critical
to a successful campaign.”
So, despite already having met my future wife, and really having her
in mind when I mentioned ‘looking for a wife’, I decided to hold that
part of my plan close to my chest.
We concluded our conversation with Tony saying:
“The procedure from here on is, I will need to speak with a few
people and if you get a phone call from Bill Heffernan, you’re in.”
“And if I don’t?” I asked.
“You can go on with your normal life,” he said smiling.
“My life has never been normal,” I thought to myself.
*****
Being just five days before Christmas when we met, I was not surprised when there was still no phone call from Senator Heffernan
by New Year. People easily forget things like “make a phone call to
Father Kevin Lee,” I told myself, still optimistic rather than accepting
the Party may not be interested in sanctioning a priest as a
politician.
In the meantime, Ray King suggested that I start writing some letters
in the Penrith Press, a local newspaper distributed freely twice a week
to all homes in our electorate. Mr King wrote some ideas to me each
couple of days and I reworded them and sent them to the newspaper’s
editor. Every letter I wrote was pro-Liberal or critical of the Gillard
government. I spoke about the need to focus on local job creation
schemes such as hotels, restaurants and cafes along the banks of the
picturesque Nepean River. I also promoted the achievements of local
identities and congratulated them, things Liberal candidate Fiona Scott
was reticent or unable to do. In fact, I had been told by some within
the local Liberal branch that she had been told to stay away from the
media in case she said something that Labor could use against her. Still
believing that Tony Abbott might suggest replacing Fiona Scott, my letters were designed to galvanise some local support for the idea that I would be a worthy opponent for David Bradbury.
A month later, I still had not heard from the country Senator so I
assumed the powers-that-be had collectively decided against using me and
I moved on with my own plans.
told me he knew about my book exposing paedophilia in the Catholic
Church. “You have no idea how deeply the problem has penetrated not just
the Church, but the police and the judiciary” he said.
“During the Wood Royal Commission
into Police Corruption, the topic of organised crime protected by
police led into the topic of organised paedophilia rings in Australia.
Suddenly Justice James Wood himself called a halt to proceedings and
ordered a break for lunch. After lunch, the topic was never returned to,
or raised again. The issue would touch too many important people who
have secrets they don’t want to be known. You will never get to the
bottom of pedophilia in the clergy because too many people in high
places are involved…”
“What about if there was a Royal Commission into the Catholic
Church?” I suggested, as that was what I and many others had been
agitating for, for years.
“It’ll never happen” he said. “Labor don’t have the political will
and when we return to power we’ll never initiate one. So what are you
thinking about doing with your book?” Heffernan asked.
“Well, if I am selected as a candidate, I won’t publish it,” I assured him.
“Good idea. That’s better at the end of your political career, as part of your memoirs,” he said.
I indicated that my phone battery might die at any time in order to
prompt his memory about what he was ringing me to say. I assumed his
protracted questioning was something like a job interview.
“Well the reason I am ringing is because you indicated to Tony that
you wanted to be a politician. Have you any idea where you would like to
run?”
I explained the reasons why Lindsay would be the best place for me.
“Well, that’s not going to happen. Fiona Scott has been given the nod
for a second crack at it. I am informing you that nominations for
pre-selection for McMahon close tomorrow.” He then ordered me to put in
my application for pre-selection for candidacy in that seat — the seat
currently held by then Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen.
“But I have heard that Frank Oliveri is running for that seat and is the branches’ local favourite,” I said, reiterating things my friend Ray King had confided.
“Oliveri is going to withdraw. I can’t understand why he hasn’t done
it already. He was ordered by the Party Executive to drop out, but he
appealed and it was upheld. But he is yet to discover the amount of crap
he is going to encounter if he intends to go forward. That’s why I’m
ringing you and asking you to put in your application. Don’t worry about
Oliveri, he is going to pull out.”
As soon as I finished my call with Heffernan, I rang Ray King ‒ who
was, by this stage, commander of Liverpool police ‒ and informed him of
my phone conversation. Ray had also developed political ambition and had
nominated for pre-selection for the seat of Fowler.
I was speaking with Frank today and he isn’t withdrawing. I’m not
saying that’s not what Bill told you. I’m just saying that Frank reckons
he isn’t going to step aside just because Heffernan or someone else
from the Exec tells him he has to,” Mark said angrily.
Early the following day, I rang Bill Heffernan and explained the predicament.
“I have a form but only one signature,” I said apologetically.
“Alright. Just bring your forms down here to headquarters by midday
and I will get you some signatures,” he assured me, seemingly cognizant
with my difficulties.
Used to following instructions, I immediately went to William Street
and found Bill Heffernan sitting cross-legged in the conference room,
waiting for me, pen in hand.
I explained the difficulty with getting the Liberal Party members’
signatures. He used some descriptive expletives about the attitude of
those who were determined to keep Oliveri in the running.
“The man is a crook. There’s plenty of reasons for him to be charged
in the future over the deals he did in Liverpool and it will become an
embarrassment to the Liberal Party. His mates don’t think about that, do
they? Show me your form I will sign it for you.”
When I handed him the nomination form, he exclaimed, “It’s blank. You haven’t even filled it in yet!”
“Well I got a bit disillusioned by the contradictions I was hearing
here. You tell me to apply because Oliveri is pulling out and all his
friends maintain that he isn’t. I don’t want to pay $1000 to nominate
for a position I can’t win.”
“Listen, if Bill Heffernan rings someone and tells them to put in an
application, they bloody well do what I tell them,” he said angrily.
I knew he was angry at the people who refused to cooperate with my
request for signatures on my application. After recalling some
meandering, irrelevant anecdotes from his Catholic youth, Bill signed my
form. He then found another in the office to sign and dictated to me
what I needed to put on the application form.
I could hardly wait to tell Ray about my encounter with Bill Heffernan.
Ray then dropped a bombshell, telling me he had withdrawn his
application for the seat of Fowler and put in his nomination for
McMahon! He had done so without discussing it with me. I felt betrayed
and could not comprehend his actions. To this day, I still don’t.
I was naturally angry with what he had done but at the time accepted
Ray’s innocent sounding explanation. He said that there was a certain
nominee for Fowler called Andrew Nguyen,
a seventy year old Vietnamese man. Apparently Nguyen had re-mortgaged
his house to get $300,000 as a campaign contribution and was quite
likely to be pre-selected
“...because what they are looking for is, who has the
money to fund a campaign and the ability to communicate with many of the
electorate. Apparently Fowler has a predominantly Vietnamese
community."
Now, in retrospect I don’t believe Ray’s justification, because
people in the party have told me that they were backing Ray to be
pre-selected because Andrew Nguyen had such poor communication skills
and was rather old.
The fact that Nguyen has been preselected speaks volumes for
Liberal’s failures. They do not care about selecting the best person to
represent the community but whoever can come up with enough campaign
money or supporters to promote the Liberal brand.
THE BLIND BATTLE FOR MCMAHON
Ray was deceptive in his comments from then on. I was a bit
ambivalent about the role of politician by this stage, with more focus
on developing a life for myself and my new wife as well as trying to get
a job. I was unemployed and dependent on welfare payments for a number
of months and definitely sure that running a political campaign would be
costly beyond my means.
The only thing I had in my favour was the fact that one former
parishioner, who is loyal to the Liberal agenda, generously offered to
give me $100,000 to run my campaign if I was pre-selected. I never
mentioned this to anyone, except Ray King, who admitted that he had no
one offering to fund his campaign.
Without revealing his real ambition, Ray continued to feed me
encouragement, telling me I was a better candidate than him. He
continued to say he was only in the race “to knock off the competition”
for me.
He said:
“With me in the race, I will take the votes away from Jamal Elishe
(who represented Liberal at the previous election, and was the only
other contender) and you will win the prize. I can’t afford to lose
$1000 so I will be pulling out in the week before the pre-selection so
you can do a Steven Bradbury and win!”
But Ray was leading me on all the way. His actions have proven to me
how politics and ambition can destroy a man’s sense of perspective and
allow him to throw away everything he has. In my mind, Ray was a close
confidant and friend. He has done so many things for me in the past that
assisted me move forward at times when I could quite easily have given
up.
While I was unemployed for nearly six months, Ray King organised for one of his friends, a Liberal loyalist, Brian Zammit
to allow me to live rent free in his granny flat in West Hoxton, close
to the area I was hoping to campaign for. Brian also gave me a job in
his family construction business as his customer liaison officer.
One day, while in Brian’s office, he was discussing the nominations
for pre-selection with his accountant Joe Malluso, who was also one of
the pre-selectors. I had seen Joe sitting in the office earlier in the
day doing the accounts and I made him a cup of coffee.
When I walked in, Brian asked Joe: “What do you think are the chances of Kevin Lee getting nominated?”
“The priest? He’s got no hope. He hasn’t got any support,” Joe said dismissively.
“Tell him that now,” Brian said, to a perplexed looking Joe. “He’s right in front of you” Brian said smiling in my direction.
Joe was shocked. I was wearing my blue collared shirt and looked nothing like the priest that Joe had visualised.
“You’re kidding,” Joe said.
“I kid you not. Joe meet Father Kevin Lee,” Brian said smiling at the irony.
Joe’s Italian Catholic background brought out the indoctrinated
respect and he stood up to shake my hand. “Well, I’m sorry Father Kevin.
I didn’t know you are the priest everyone has been talking about. I
expected this Father Lee was an Asian,” he said.
“Yes that’s a common racial generalisation I get with an Asian sounding surname, but my father’s actually Irish” I informed him.
We sat down and discussed the election and I switched into campaigner
mode and began to impress on both Brian and Joe why I would be a better
candidate to support than Ray King.
Ray later interpreted the conversation which followed as an attempt
to white-ant him, but I maintain that they deserved to know the history
of the candidate they were intent on supporting. It seems now that no
one in the Liberal camp really wanted to know about the skeletons of
their representatives. They are content to wait and see if the media or
Labor discover them.
As our conversation continued, I was led to believe, or maybe I
wanted to believe, they were swinging their support from Ray to me. One
of the reasons I stated which I thought was already known to both of
them was Ray’s appearance at the Wood Royal Commission. Ray claimed
later that I told them he was arrested and forced to stand trial at the
Commission but I maintain I merely indicated my concerns that if his
involvement in a defending role at an Inquiry into Police Corruption was
brought up, he may have some explaining to do. They agreed to turn
their support over to me as well as promising to convince the branch
members to support my nomination.
Brian then rang Ray to tell him of their decision.
I don’t know what Ray King said to them but I could hear Brian Zammit
saying, “Ray you have my complete support and also that of Joe. We are
100% behind you Ray” he repeated a number of times.
I then knew I had only one option, I rang Bill Heffernan and asked
him to request Ray to withdraw. Heffernan sounded angry when I called
and he said, “Kevin forget about Ray King. It’s the pre-selectors you
have to focus on now. Call all of them. Don’t bother with emails. That’s
horseshit. You just f***ing call them all and convince them why you are
the best candidate for the Liberal Party.”
For some unknown reason each of the pre-selection candidates is sent
an Excel spreadsheet with the names, home addresses, home, business and
mobile phone numbers as well as personal email addresses of all the
pre-selectors. I was wondering whether this was, in fact, so we could
offer them all a bribe for their vote, but since the election was going
to be by secret ballot no one would ever know if anyone did vote for
you.
None of the pre-selectors I spoke to said they wouldn’t vote for me,
but some did say they would, while the majority were noncommittal. I was
aware that one of the candidates had invited all fifty two of the
pre-selectors to his home for a dinner. Did he win any support by that
gesture? I will never know, but to me it reeked of impropriety to even
give all that contact information prior to delivering what could be a
life-changing speech to them.
“But Bill” I protested to Mr Heffernan, “if you just call Ray and tell him to withdraw, he will do it.”
“No, I’m not going to do that Kevin. That would be very wrong if I
were to interfere in the process. You just go and do what you have to do
to get selected. Call Marise Payne and make sure you meet with her.
There’s also a few other people you should call …” and he gave me a few
names of people whose support I needed.
When I did meet with Senator Marise Payne she bought me a coffee at
the café opposite her campaign office in Penrith. She convinced me that
she hadn’t made up her mind yet and was waiting to hear the speeches.
She said:
“Don’t believe what people tell you if they say that
they support you. The only people you know are telling you the truth are
the ones who say that they are not going to vote for you!”
I visited, rang or emailed everyone on the list, with few replies.
One who did sound positive, but then disappeared and never replied to my
emails, was a Doctor Clive O’Connor. He was a conservative Catholic,
whom I assumed had Opus Dei connections, because his main question to me
was: “What’s your position on abortion?” I told him I had written
something on the topic and included it in my parish newsletter and he
asked me to send him a copy. I did, but he never responded.
There was another couple Frank Zappia and his wife, who seemed very
interested in supporting me particularly because they didn’t want fellow
Italian and outside dark horse, Joe Romeo
as their local member. They assured me that they could swing all their
branch members into voting for me after losing their preferred
representative, Frank Oliveri.
When it came closer to the day of pre-selection and Ray had not yet
withdrawn, I was still working for his friend Brian Zammit. I was asked
by our general manager to go to Liverpool police station and measure up
the area that Brian’s company had been asked to make desks for Ray’s
police station conference room.
When I turned up, Ray King was sitting at his desk reading the paper
and eating his lunch. He had an accusatory look on his face as he said:
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m working,” I said with a smile.
He didn’t believe me when I informed him that I had been told to do the measurements.
He said, “Have you come to apologise? I know what you told Joe and Brian was an attempt to undermine me”.
“Ray, you promised to withdraw from pre-selection. You said, on your
honour, you would withdraw. I need you to do that now,” I almost pleaded
with him.
“Well I have to now, don’t I? I got a call last night from the
Liberal Party asking about what happened in the Royal Commission. They
told me I now have to withdraw my nomination." He glared at me in a way I
had seen him look at junior officers he had berated for some infraction
of police protocols.
“I have done you a favour Ray. If you had have gone into the
election, Labor would have brought it up and whether you are innocent or
not of the allegations, you are always going to come out of it looking
corrupt. And what about people from your past? Anyone of them can come
forward and embarrass you?”
“Mate, I wanted to knock your head off when you walked through the
door. I can’t believe you would try to undermine me like that after all
we have been through together,” he said.
“Ray, you are the one who undermined me. You swore you were only
there to help me. You never said you wanted the position for yourself.
After all, it was me who was rung by head office and told to apply. Not
you!” I retorted assertively.
“Righto” Ray said a bit more calmly.
He glared at me for a moment, while all I could do was smile.
“Anyway, just go. See ya later. You and I are finished as mates."
A few days later, another of the contenders, Joe Romeo, realising he didn’t have the support he needed, withdrew.
On the day of pre-selection I was contacted by pre-selector and
Liberal candidate for Fowler, Andrew Nguyen. He said he was impressed
with the fact that I was dedicated to my faith and done some volunteer
work in Vietnamese refugee camps. He assured me that I could get sixteen
of the votes who were Vietnamese if I included some of their language
in my speech and told them about my voluntary work with St Vincent de
Paul, which I did.
In the end, Ray didn’t keep his word. He went into the pre-selection,
which ended up being between him and I and Jamal Elishe, an Iraqi
refugee who had only been in the country for seven years. Although he
apparently had a lot of Arab backers (with money) he had very little
English, so in my mind it did really boil down to just Ray and I.
I did what Bill Heffernan advised and forgot about Ray King and put
all my energy into attempting to sway the minds of the pre-selectors.
I prepared a speech which started with an introduction in five
languages to emphasise that this election was best contested by someone
who had an ability to communicate across a number of cultures in an area
that boasted over 130 different nationalities. My speech also had
humour: “A little girl asked her father, “Daddy, do all fairy tales
begin with ‘Once upon a time’?” He answered, “No, sweetheart, some of
them begin with ‘If I am elected…’”
As well as emotive phrases designed to elicit a positive response, I
gave many logical reasons why I could represent the community
energetically due to my interest in people and willingness to visit
homes, schools and the workplaces of the constituents. I had canvassed
opinions from people in the community about what issues most affected
them and translated those comments into a proposal that I believed would
be well received by the pre-selectors, some of whom gave me pointers on
what I should say.
As we sat in the room waiting to deliver our speeches to the
pre-selectors on the presentation night, Ray offered his hand, “I
forgive you for trying to undermine me and when I win, I will still keep
my promise and give you a job as my media officer. And if you win, I
hope you would extend to me the same courtesy”.
“Sure Ray, but I never did undermine you. I only wanted to save you
the embarrassment which is going to come your way, should you win.”
“Whatever happens, let’s have a beer afterwards,” he offered.
“Yeah that would be nice” I said.
I had rehearsed my speech each day for at least an hour as I did my
six kilometre walk for twelve days. I had managed to memorise my speech
word for word and presented it flawlessly without much reference to my
notes.
I knew in my mind Ray King looked very confident he was going to be
chosen, but I had no idea how assured he was until I heard the vote
tally. Out of fifty two possible votes Ray King got thirty seven. I got
one and Jamal, the Iraqi refugee got the rest. Some in the audience
expressed their incredulity at the outcome and the moderator was
questioned as to why there were no independent auditors at the counting
of the votes. He was convinced not to destroy the ballots in case any
questioning happened later. I would have liked to but I could not see
the point.
Now, I am not naïve enough to believe I was able to sway the decision
of all the voters in the room by my presentation but I am sure some
must possess a conscience and have realised that my presentation was
better than Ray’s or Jamal Elishe.
After Ray King won the pre-selection by a landslide, we shook hands
and I have not seen or heard from him since. I waited for a call or text
to have that promised drink, but it has never come.
It is quite upsetting what Ray King has done to our friendship, but I
can forgive him for what happened because I believe that the pursuit of
position and power also blinded me to what was happening around me.
As I went home to lick my wounds, I received a call that night from Bernard Bratusa:
“I just spoke with Marise Payne and she used one word to
describe your performance tonight, ‘Awesome’. You impressed some
important decision makers in that room tonight, Kevin. I wouldn’t be too
disappointed by how you went. You have a long career ahead of you in
politics. You’re only forty eight. Ray is sixty one or two, so your turn
will come. Just play the game for a while and show some loyalty to the
Party by supporting Ray during the campaign process. Ray tells me he has
plans to offer you a job in his office when he gets elected.”
I was not in the mood for conversation with anyone but I didn’t want
to fob Bernard off as he is such a good man. I got to know him better in
recent years, since he started attending our church and, with his wife
Katheryne, they had helped out in our fundraising committee.
But I was not impressed when he let slip that he and Senator Marise
Payne had helped write Ray King’s speech for the pre-selection. I had
introduced Ray to Bernard and at no time had he told me he had been
getting public speaking lessons from my friend.
I had already made up my mind that the Liberal Party was filled with
two-faced pretenders – very much like the Church I had previously
ministered in – but on this day, I had promised myself never to have
anything to do with party politics again.
After my unsuccessful pre-selection campaign, I received no response
to my emails and texts to either Tony Abbott or Bill Heffernan.
THE END OF THE AFFAIR
On 16th June 2013, I found an unread message on my Facebook account (March 14 10:22pm):
'Great speach tonight at the preselection. Very engaging, you had my vote don’t give up mate.'
I replied to the person:
'Hi [NAME DELETED], I don’t know why I only found this
message today. It’s amazing that so many people told me they had voted
for me at the pre-selection but I only got one vote. So you must be the
one who told the truth… So what did you think of Ray King’s speech? What
did he say that so convinced the majority that he is the best man for
the job?'
And this was his reply:
Hi Kevin. I was baffled why Ray King received the
winning number of votes. Your speech was without a doubt much better
than Ray’s. Furthermore the other candidates speech (Jamal) was so
painful to watch I couldn’t bare (sic) it. He couldn’t even comprehend
the questions that were asked of him. For example, one pre selector
asked him about the proposed changes to superannuation laws, and his
response to the question (after asking to have the question repeated)
was quote “superannuation is for people to put money into for their
retirement”. Completely did not understand the question. Following that
response there was a muffled chatting among people in the room. Yet
Jamal was closely behind Ray. The meeting was stacked with Assyrian pre
selectors and they would of (sic) voted for Jamal no matter what he
said. Earlier than day an SMS circulated to me from an unknown number
that “we all must support Jamal”.
Anyway, after your
speech there was a brief pause before questioning commenced, and your
speech was much less scrutinized than Ray’s or Jamal’s. I thought that
was an indication you were a clear winner. I was shocked when the
chairperson of the meeting announced you only received one vote (my
vote). Ray mainly discussed his time in the police and he emphasised
integrity over and over. There was no smoking gun which made him the
winner or better than your speech. He was reading a pre-prepared speech
also. And almost lost his cool with the questions. Whereas you were very
calm and composed throughout the speech and questions. It was very well
delivered, clear and precise Kevin. Even the guy sitting next to me
said “you smashed it”, referring to the high calibre of your speech. Yet
he voted for Jamal because he had to. I say keep trying, maybe even at a
state level?
In later correspondence, my informant told me his disappointment with the process in subsequent weeks:
I was having a discussion with one of the Smithfield
branch members a few days after who was unable to establish why Jamal
did not win as they were confident in the numbers prior to the pre
selection that he would win. I politely said he lacked the ability to
speak English for starters that's probably to a large extent why he
didn't win, and the reason why I didn’t vote for him.
And
this person said in disbelief, something to the effect of "What? You
didn’t support Jamal? We have to support him, he is OUR candidate, he is
the Smithfield branch's candidate".
I responded "No, I
voted for who I believed was the best possible candidate worthy of
supporting, that had the best ability to represent the seat of McMahon, I
voted for Kevin the priest".
And this person said
"Man, it does not work like that, you've got so much to learn, you have
no idea. Anyway what’s done is done. It was a waste of a potential vote
that should of gone to Jamal".
I said "What do you
mean? Candidates stand up and present themselves via a speech and the
preselectors choose a winner based on his or her merits" , and this
person said "Nah, like I said doesn't work like that, what they say
doesn’t make a difference, its already decided, we work out the numbers
beforehand who will win, Jamal should of won".
And that
was the end of the conversation. The accuracy of our discussion is
about 90% in terms of words I used in the quotes, but that was the basis
of the conversation I had with this person. The other instance on the
night, a person next to me questioned me "Oh I wonder who voted for the
priest", I said "me". This person said "Yeah he was good, what do you
expect, he has lots of experience as a priest etc." I asked him "who did
you vote for?" and he said "Ahh I had to vote for Jamal man, need to do
what we can".
This person’s disclosure of ‘what goes on’ has validated my decision
to distance myself from a party that has no principles. The most recent
proof of the failure of the pre-selection process to select the best
possible candidate was exhibited today by Jaymes Diaz, representing the
Liberal Party for Greenaway.
Jaymes Diaz and his father Jess were parishioners when I was priest
in Blacktown, and were pre-selectors for McMahon who had assured me of
their support and yet they refused to cast their secret vote for me.
What you saw of Jaymes Diaz in front of the Channel Ten cameras is
symptomatic of the state of the Liberal Party across the board. I was
surprised when this junior immigration lawyer (exclusively representing
fellow Filipinos) got pre-selected over some much better qualified
candidates. He and his fellow Filos have stacked the branches that he
was pre-selected from and there was never a doubt that, regardless of
who was the better candidate for Greenaway, Jaymes was always going to
be selected.
TONY ABBOTT AND THE OPUS DEI EFFECT
Since the pre-selection process for McMahon concluded, I have had
plenty of time to reflect on the process as well as outcome. I have
reviewed some of my opinions about Tony Abbott and his supporters, as
well as the individuals whom I was convinced were supportive of my
political aspirations with the Liberal Party.
Prior to my experience with the Liberal Party, I was a staunch
defender of all that Tony Abbott stood for. I even defended his decision
in 1997 to support
a fellow seminary student Father John Nestor who had been accused of
paedophilia whilst a priest in the Wollongong Diocese. The criticism levelled at Mr Abbott
regarding his decision to support John Nestor without any personal
knowledge of the allegations was an area that I needed to do some
examination of my conscience.
Paul Osborne wrote a story published on 8 February 2013 questioning the motives of Liberal Leader Tony Abbott when he gave a character reference to the accused priest.
I know John Nestor from my time in the seminary and can vouch that he
was a man of exceptional character. But there is one quality of his
that must have motivated the future Prime Minister to put his reputation
on the line to defend an alleged paedophile.
John Nestor was a priestly member of Opus Dei.
So it doesn’t surprise me that the then Parliamentary secretary to the Employment Minister described John Nestor as:
“An extremely upright and virtuous man. I guess one of
the things that I like very much about John when I first met him was his
maturity — intellectual, social, emotional. And he was, to that extent I
guess, a beacon of humanity at the seminary.”
I knew that there were a number of complaints by people within the
local school and parish of the Wollongong Diocese that were opposed to
Father John Nestor’s Opus Dei associations.
Anyway, innocent or guilty, he is in Opus Dei and I believe this is
the only reason that Abbott stuck his neck out to support him. Because
he is an Opus Dei priest, I am sure there are people in the Liberal
Party who emphasised the need for John Nestor to be cleared.
I am writing this not to be malicious, but to respond to the constant
criticisms of Opus Dei interference in politics of which I am now
convinced. My experiences prove that they exert significant influence
over who is acceptable and who is not.
Even Ray King, who now is running for Liberal in the seat of McMahon told me during the lead up to pre-selection:
“You will lose support from the Libs because of your
attacks on Cardinal George Pell. Your attacks on Pell, as much as I
personally agree with them, were the reason you burnt all your support
base. Opus Dei does have power in Federal politics.”
The proof is in the fact that none of my endorsers have contacted me
since my pre-selection speech — even to ask how I went or to comment on
what happened.
Opus Dei, which is Latin for ‘The Work of God', is a personal
prelature or association of priests and lay people that was formed in
1928, by the actions of a certain Spanish priest, Father Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás.
To the devotees of Opus Dei, he is referred to simply as “The Founder”.
His spiritual movement had found its way into Australia in 1963,
through the efforts of a humble and holy Springwood identity and father
of ten, Professor Ron Woodhead. Convinced of its merit, he welcomed the
movement and all it stood for into NSW University in 1971. I became
involved in Opus Dei while still a University student and was soon
overcome with the zeal of its adherents. I tell of my involvement in my
book.
Opus Dei’s influence spread through Warrane College, a residential
college of NSW Uni that provided a home predominantly for country
students and the members worked tirelessly to ensure that other young
and energetic Catholic students would be introduced to their founder’s
teachings. Its agenda is to indoctrinate educated people of the validity
of its aims and infiltrate the legal profession, medicine and politics
to influence them to enforce the extremely restrictive interpretation of
Catholic social teaching that its founder inculcated. Pope John Paul
II, who favoured the spirituality of the cult that emphasised personal
sanctity and obedience to the Pope, canonised the Founder in record time
and declared the cult a valid separate category of associations in
Canon Law.
Its influence continues today through its schools and institutes,
which never bear any identifiers that associate them to this secretive
organisation. Its attempts to place members in positions of influence in
Australia (and in fact throughout the world) are extremely successful.
The current Rector of the Sydney seminary (the one responsible for
determining who becomes a priest in Sydney) Father Anthony Percy is an
Opus Dei priest. Father Percy was directly appointed by Cardinal George
Pell and is a personal friend of Tony Abbott.
If Opus Dei and extreme right wing conservatives are setting the
agenda for the Liberal Party, then the Australian people need to know
who the Liberal Party is made up of before they elect them into
government.
This story was originally published, in a different form, at francesjones.wordpress.com. To read Father Kevin's book, please click here.
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