“Sad, vitriolic, bitter and twisted”: Libs hit back at Hamilton-Smith
State Liberals have hit back at their former colleague Martin Hamilton-Smith, and denounced Labor “innuendo” about the future of Opposition Leader Steven Marshall.
Hamilton-Smith, who quit the Liberals to sit as a conservative independent in the Labor cabinet, this week warned his former party if he was politically targeted “I put up a big show … I will back up the truck and lift the tipper”.
He saved most of his bile for Marshall, who he claimed under privilege made “a complete and utter mess” of the health portfolio during his brief time in the shadow ministry.
But Liberal MPs went on the counter-attack late yesterday, with Mount Gambier MP Troy Bell telling parliament: “I will stand up for my party and our leader.”
He detailed a potted history of Hamilton-Smith’s record on the Liberal benches, claiming his short-lived return as Isobel Redmond’s deputy in 2010 was undone “mainly because he had approached her and made it clear that she should stand aside and that much of the success of the 2010 election should be attributed to him”.
The Liberals lost that election despite an almost 52 per cent two-party statewide vote, a result echoed four years later.
Hamilton-Smith told InDaily Bell’s version of events was “untrue”, but said: “I’ll try to focus on jobs and economic renewal”.
Bell told parliament he wanted “to put on the record my full support for Steven Marshall and our Liberal team”.
“The best thing that the Labor Party has done for the Liberal Party over the last 14 years is to offer the member for Waite a cabinet position,” he said.
Michael Pengilly, a Liberal moderate who had a close relationship with Hamilton-Smith, followed Bell, saying he was “disappointed and saddened” by the former leader’s remarks.
“It was inexcusable and disappointing … I am a person who supported him to the hilt in his former roles and he has let us down badly,” said Pengilly.
“To make a sad, vitriolic, bitter and twisted attack, I thought, showed the depth of his character … it is a sad day.”
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Bell also railed against Labor scuttlebutt about potential leadership instability, with Bell insisting: “I am not going to stand here and watch this current Government try to inject innuendo and doubt into the stability of my Liberal Party.”
“I am sure the stability of the current Liberal team drives some people on the other side absolutely crazy,” he said.
Deputy Liberal leader Vickie Chapman today “totally” ruled out a leadership challenge.
“Absolutely … it’s complete Labor nonsense,” she told ABC891.
