Liberals accuse each other's factions of 'thuggish behaviour' and being 'a cancer that's infected the party'
Recriminations over the Coalition's federal election loss have boiled over spectacularly, with senior Liberal Party figures engaging in a vicious blame game over the impact of factional infighting on the result.
Four Corners has spoken to dozens of Liberal Party members about the Coalition's devastating loss, which has been blamed in part on the failure to preselect candidates in more than a dozen NSW seats until weeks before the election date.
The situation was further inflamed when a NSW party official, businessman Matthew Camenzuli, took the Liberal Party to court in a failed bid to force preselection votes for ordinary branch members.
Speaking for the first time about his actions Mr Camenzuli launched a broadside at former prime minister Scott Morrison's representative in NSW, rival faction leader and then-cabinet minister Alex Hawke.
"I think the guy's a cancer," he told Four Corners. "I think Alex and the movement that he's built is a cancer that has infected the party … and it needs to be excised. This cancer needs to be cut out."
