The ABC’s recent revelations
of vote rigging,
intimidation and branch stacking in the NSW Liberal Party have prompted
a former footsoldier from the right of the NSW and Victorian ALP
to drop a line to Crikey:

I am now wondering if former Senator Richard Alston’s
allegations of ABC anti-Liberal bias really
do have some substance to them.

Let me just sum up my view of the role of the
branch-stacking and underhanded activities in the ALP’s factions with five
words: It has always been thus. Frankly, the right wing of the NSW Liberal Party looks
fairly amateurish compared to the NSW Right of the ALP.

Will Four Corners be following up
with an expose into the endemic corruption within the Victorian Division of the
ALP? The activities of Senator Conroy and Bill Shorten in various Federal
preselections earlier this year are fertile ground for a Four
Corners program on the parlous state of democracy in Australia’s
oldest political party.

We wonder what our correspondent made of
Lateline last night.
“Being racist, sexist and homophobic isn’t something many people
would normally be proud of,” host Tony Jones solemnly intoned. “But for some
Young Liberals it seems it’s almost a badge of honour. Tonight, we can bring
you a rare glimpse of the unguarded behaviour of some of those Young Liberals
captured on video by a documentary team at a student conference…”

Gosh. Students get p-ssed and misbehave at
a conference. Melodrama in student politics. Whoever would have thought of it?