Outgoing Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has hit out at Scott Morrison, describing him as a “bully who has no moral compass” and a man unfit to be Prime Minister.
In an extraordinary speech to parliament on Monday night, the conservative NSW senator accused Mr Morrison and his factional ally, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, of corrupting the party’s state division.
“There is a very appropriate saying here, the fish stinks from the head,”xjmtzyw Senator Fierravanti-Wells told senators.
“Morrison and Hawke have ruined the Liberal party in NSW by trampling its constitution.”
Senator Fierravanti-Wells – who will leave politics after the upcoming election after being placed in an unwinnable position on the party’s Senate ticket – described her demotion as “dodgy”.
She went on to suggest members of the party were “despairing” at their prospects at the upcoming election and could turn away from the party.
“They blame Morrison for this. Our members do not want to help in the upcoming election,” she said.
“It is his way or the highway. An autocrat, a bully who has no moral compass.”
She took aim at Mr Morrison’s faith, calling it a marketing ploy and that his actions were at odds with his “morality”.
“he is adept at running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds, lacking the moral compass and having no conscience,” she said.
“His actions conflict with his portrayal as a man of faith. He has used his so-called faith as a marketing advantage.”
The right-wing senator’s verbal spray comes after the federal executive of the Liberal Party took over the preselection of candidates in a number of key NSW seats.
The move gave Mr Morrison and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet the power to hand-pick candidates for key seats like Parramatta and Hughes.
She said Mr Morrison and Mr Hawke had deliberately manufactured a crisis within the NSW Liberal party to justify installing their own preferred candidates.
“There is a putrid stench of corruption emanating from the division,” she said.
