Two Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs have quit the party over the behaviour of its leader Robert Borsak.
Key points:
- The two MPs will run as independents in the March state election
- Mr Butler and Mr Donato tried unsuccessfully to change the party’s executive at its AGM over the weekend
- They say there’s a ‘conflict of interest’ in the make-up of the state executive
The member for Barwon, Roy Butler, and member for Orange, Phil Donato, have announced their resignations and will run as independents at the state election in March.
In September, Mr Borsak said former party member-turned-independent MP, Helen Dalton, should have been “clocked”.
He made the comments in state parliament.
Mr Butler said “there’s still been no retraction, no apology” which left him “no choice” but to quit.
“It’s not tenable for me to stay,” Mr Butler said.
“Fifty per cent of my voters are women, they had an expectation that I do something about it.”
Mr Donato said it was unfortunate that it had come to this.
“I don’t condone, accept violence towards anyone let alone a woman,” he said.
“I’m not prepared to keep working under a leader like that.”
On the weekend, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party held its annual general meeting, where both Mr Butler and Mr Donato attempted to change the executive of the party.
But they were unsuccessful, which prompted their resignations.
“Certain issues and conduct which I don’t accept as being appropriate appear to be accepted by the executive,” Mr Donato said.
Both MPs also raised concerns that there was a “conflict of interest” in the makeup of the party’s executive because it includes Mr Borsak’s son and close friend.
“I really liked what the party stood for and I like the values that it has,” Mr Butler said.
“It’s just at the moment the systems or the mechanisms that sits around those values is not something that I can stand beside.”
Mr Butler won the seat of Barwon in the state’s west at the last election, in 2019, with a 19.5 per cent swing away from the Nationals Party.
Mr Donato has held the seat of Orange in the Central West since 2016, after winning it for the Shooters party in a by-election.
All three Shooters, Fishers and Farmers lower house MPs have now quit the party.
The member for Murray, Helen Dalton, resigned earlier this year.
Mr Borsak, the leader of the party, is one of two upper house MPs.