Ousted ALP member urges PM to clean up

Jessica Benton
An ALP member suspended for two years for campaigning against the party’s Corio candidate has responded with a letter urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to clean up the party.
Labor suspended former Geelong councillor Margrette Lewis for allegedly suggesting voters should back Liberal candidate Angelo Kakouros and for criticising the party’s Corio preselection process in an Independent story last year.
The party also accused Ms Lewis of handing out flyers at the federal election in support of independent candidate Gavan O’Connor, who lost the party’s preselection to eventual Corio winner Richard Marles.
Ms Lewis was among 24 Geelong party members summoned to a hearing in Melbourne to explain why they had supported Mr O’Connor.
The party has yet to reveal how many members were suspended or kicked out of the party but the Independent reported last week claims the ALP had purged around 15.
Ms Lewis said two of the three allegations against her were “false”.
“I don’t mind taking the blame for something I’ve done but I’ll sue over the incorrect accusations.”
Ms Lewis said she had sent her letter to Mr Rudd, the ALP’s president and the party’s Victorian secretary.
The letter demanded an investigation into the party in Geelong and the ALP’s treatment of the ousted members, she said.
Ms Lewis believed that the expulsions had made a “laughing stock” of the party.
“I find the latest actions quite offensive and against my principles,” Ms Lewis said.
“The ethics, morals and principles of the ALP are also not being practiced here and that’s why I’m asking for an investigation.”
Ms Lewis had yet to decide whether she would rejoin the party after her suspension ended.
She said the party had suspended another member, Jacqueline Henry, for five years after she refused to attend the hearing.
Labor Victorian secretary Stephen Newnham did not return the Independent’s call for comment.