Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Western Australian Liberal MP Dennis Jensen is threatening to quit the party after he was dumped by local preselectors ahead of the upcoming federal election.
Dr Jensen, who has held the safe suburban seat of Tangney since 2004, is refusing to go quietly, accusing his enemies of orchestrating a media campaign to ensure his downfall.
"I am not very happy about this sort of behaviour being allowed to fly and get rewarded," he told the ABC.
"The reality is, my margin speaks for itself. I've been the most popular member for Tangney that there's ever been - ever - and they stabbed me in the back for that."
The 54-year-old lost the vote 57 to 7 at the weekend, and will be replaced on the ballot paper by Ben Morton, a former director of the WA Liberal Party.
Dr Jensen reportedly delivered a "bizarre rant" during his speech to Tangney preselectors on Sunday, and sped off in his car following the result.
Last week, News Corp reported that in 2007, Dr Jensen had used his official parliamentary letterhead to spruik a novel he had penned about a fictional war between Australia and a crazed Indonesian dictator who enlists the support of China.
The Sky Warriors - an as-yet unpublished work - also contains a number of erotic scenes. "She pulled his trousers off, ripped the underpants off excitedly, and took him in her mouth," the MP writes in one graphic passage.
Dr Jensen said the apparent leak of his nine-year-old "mistake" was part of an orchestrated campaign by his political enemies.
"It was clearly orchestrated and very well organised. They'd obviously been digging pretty damn deep to go back to something like that," he said.
Current state director of the WA Liberal Party, Andrew Cox, rejected Dr Jensen's claims of a smear campaign.
"I think it was conducted fairly," he said.
Dr Jensen is also pursuing legal action against News Corp.
Never popular with local members, Dr Jensen has been rejected by preselectors twice before, but was saved courtesy of the intervention of John Howard and then the Liberal state council. Such a reprieve is not expected to come this time.
In February, he prompted outrage by telling Parliament the government should not be in the business of funding the "noble savage" lifestyles of Indigenous Australians living in remote parts of the country.
He was defending a policy position taken by former prime minister Tony Abbott, who backed the closure of some remote Aboriginal communities. West Australian of the Year Robert Isaacs subsequently called for Dr Jensen's disendorsement.
Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger said Dr Jensen should not bother trying to seek redress against the decision.
"He may have been popular in the electorate ... but inside the party he wasn't popular," Mr Kroger told Sky News. He also dismissed Dr Jensen's complaints about dirty tricks.
"If that's a smear campaign it's a pretty low-level smear campaign. There's nothing more to be said about this."
Later this month, another controversial Liberal figure will face a tough preselection battle - the member for Mackellar and former speaker of the House of Representatives, Bronwyn Bishop.
NSW Premier Mike Baird, former premier Nick Greiner and Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone have all written references in favour of Ms Bishop's main rival, businessman Jason Falinski.
