WA Liberal leader David Honey’s chief of staff Michael Huston caught in ‘Clan-like’ party voting push

WA Liberal leader David Honey’s chief of staff has been caught corralling votes for important party delegate positions - mimicking a practice used by an alliance of powerbrokers known as The Clan. The West Australian obtained text messages sent by Michael Huston, Mr Honey’s long-time colleague, that encouraged strategic voting ahead of the party’s Curtin division annual conference. The SMS included how-to-vote cards that set out his “voting preference” for the division’s State Council delegates, which have voting rights over certain party rules and can ratify or reject candidate preselections. “Got a voting preference for Curtin tonight for you and am hoping that is OK by you. It is to try in particular to ensure that Anna Dartnall, David Straface and Rob Paparde who have worked hard and together this year, get elected onto State council,” it read. All three of Mr Huston’s preferred delegates were successfully voted onto State council on Monday night. Liberal sources said his intervention was a “bad look” given recent scrutiny of The Clan, whose practice of voting as a block to control office-bearer and delegate appointments was last year exposed in leaked WhatsApp messages. “David Honey’s chief of staff is doing exactly what The Clan has been criticised for,” a member the Curtin division said. “To exploit his position and attempt to influence delegates just shows that at the highest level things haven’t changed and how with these type of continuing practices we’ll never rebuild to where we need to be.” Mr Huston, who is not a member of The Clan, told The West that as a long-standing member of the Curtin division he was “entitled” to express his views. “I can only tell you that I acted as a lay member of the party, which I’m entitled to do. Certainly people have sought my opinion and I’ve been happy to give it as to who’s been working solidly for the division,” he said. Mr Straface, one of those supported by Mr Huston, issued a withering assessment of the state of the WA Liberal Party in his president’s report to the division. The outgoing president said Curtin - which lost its federal seat to teal independent Kate Chaney in May - faced battles not only against left-wing parties but also a “small cabal of members who want control, through fair means or foul, of the resources, parliamentarians and executives of our party”. “Make no mistake, the dire position of our party is due to their ‘generalship’ and their inflated belief in their own competence,” he wrote. “Rather than trusting the members and allowing a full reform and clean out of corruption within the party, they are intent to retain control, even if the party remains nothing more than a shriveled rump by their actions. “I have had discussions with many members over this past year. A large number were unaware of the practical politics of how things were done. “On first hearing the Machiavellian process, most have a look of despair and disappointment. But I have been heartened by the resilience and defiance that comes afterward. Many express the willingness to get involved and fight.”