Disgruntled Liberal sources have resorted to speaking to media as the civil war between Jeremy Rockliff’s moderates and Eric Abetz’ far right forces spreads throughout the party’s membership.

Liberal insiders have now publicly expressed their concern that the dispute surrounding Brendan Blomeley’s membership – which is clearly a proxy battle for a broader power struggle – will end up in the courts as more branches speak up.

Sources also revealed to the Examiner that Mr Abetz enraged the government by attending last week’s “Battle of Bellerive” meeting in defiance of Rockliff’s hand-picked State President’s orders.

While the Premier did his best to pretend there wasn’t an issue – even going to the effort to stand with Mr Abetz on the morning of the meeting – he isn’t fooling anyone.

Mr Rockliff may be right that most Tasmanians don’t care about whether or not Mr Abetz attended a meeting.

However he’s completely mistaken if he thinks Tasmanians don’t care about having a government that is so consumed by internal chaos that it can’t effectively do the job it supposed to do.

Since Jeremy Rockliff’s leadership sent his government into minority Tasmania has already shed 5,000 jobs, and there’s only more bad news on the horizon if he can’t even get his own house in order.

Josh Willie MP
Labor Member for Clark