Month: March 2022

Received from Kirsty O’Sullivan, ex member

Tom —

I just wanted to send a quick email out to all members and supporters, those who have been watching Liberty Chat, and all the candidates I have been working with. I have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with so many of you, and I hope electoral change can still happen in this country.

For me, this will not include the Liberal Democrats. Having previously worked for the party, when we brought the administration side out from Senator Leyonhjelm’s office, I left that time due to speaking up about the corruption and bullying within the party. I had many conversations with exec members who totally agreed with me, yet were too weak to stand up. Only two men had “the balls” to do anything about that particular issue, and the offending person was expelled from the party. I took a year contract at the IPA, which I loved, even though was not easy over the pandemic. Then was building a small business doing copywriting and editing, when the party asked for me to come back as the person hired (and paid very well) whilst I was away, decided to leave. I said I was only going to work part time, but that changed when John Ruddick joined, and the membership started to sky rocket – even more so with Campbell Newman getting on board.

Then for a while I was working around 70-80 hours a week, whilst getting paid for 20. Eventually I was able to get my pay for 40 hours a week, but still at a low rate for the types of work I was expected to do. To cut a long story short, this party has a problem with nepotism, with using and burning people, and with misusing your donations. There is no functional structure within the party, and no way to resolve issues before it becomes a blow out.

There is also a big problem with women. Women that speak out get marked as a trouble maker. This can even be candidates.

I will be cancelling my own membership with the party. I have zero faith in the abilities of the National Executive, and I feel they have zero regard or respect for their members. Taking the Liberals to the High Court over a name most members hate is just one example. Now they have to scramble for the money. When we fundraised for the marketing of the freedom manifesto videos, we raised a whole lot of money. Where has it gone?

The next AGM will have almost the entire Nat Exec up for election, and I hope it is wiped out and replaced with people who can actually run things properly – if the party even lasts that long, with the current AEC issues.

On Friday i basically went on strike until my ongoing pay issues were resolved, and I could be paid even close to what the person doing this job last year was being paid. I then went to Adelaide to help the SA team for their State election, as I have travelled interstate and through regional Victoria for candidate campaign launches, never paid anything by the party to do so. So yes, this is my angry post, thank you for reading this far. This morning I heard that the party would not accept my proposal, and I can only assume more nepotism has taken place as “amazingly” there is already someone else to take this role – before they even told me, they organised someone else, someone i can only assume is the partner of the National Secretary, because Terje Peterson (the elusive VP most of you have no idea exists) refused to answer my question. I will also add that a few months ago I was able to get an assistant for the admin office, doing 20 hours a week. She was so overwhelmed with the amount of work, that she dropped to 10 hours, and then quit last week.

Countless hours of devotion to this party over the years, and this is what they do to people. They burn people. Never a thank you. I cannot support it any longer. I would suggest that donors find out exactly where there money goes before you consider donating again.

Regards,

Kirsty O’Sullivan

https://www.tiktok.com/@christippett355/video/7077663941471538433