Internal Liberal Party elections for key positions in the past fortnight were a rout for moderates, whose public face is Gary Humphries, and said to be a win for the party's right.
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The party comprehensively rejected candidates fielded by the moderate Menzies group in elections for presidents of the three electorate branches and the women's council.
Retired public servant Robert Gunning held his position as the northern branch president, beating Willem Vlotman by 47 votes to nine. Angela McGuinness, a staffer in Nicole Lawder's Assembly office, retained her position as president of the southern branch by 67 votes to challenger Robert Longbottom's 21.
Newcomer Duncan McDonald won the presidency of the central branch against Lachlan Chislett, who is the secretary of a breakaway group of student Liberals at the Australian National University, the Progressive Liberal Students Association. Their battle was closer, 74 votes to 55. Mr McDonald replaces Senator Eric Abetz staffer Josh Manuatu as the central branch president.
Kate Davis, an Assembly staffer in Andrew Wall's office, held her position as president of the Women's Council against Susan Longbottom, by 48 votes to 12.
The Young Liberals branch is headed by Josh Baker, from Senator Zed Seselja's office.
The rout for the Menzies group was variously interpreted in the party as a win for the party's right, which some claim now controls all 13 positions of the party's management committee, or a slap-down for a disaffected group that gathers around Mr Humphries and former party member Gary Kent.
Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson rejected the suggestion that the right had control of the party, or of the management committee, claiming himself as a centrist.
The characterisation of the elections as a battle between left and right was a "massive oversimplification", he said. "The chairs of the branches have been democratically elected by the party based on merit," he said. "It is a ringing endorsement of the current management of the party.
"What it says is that the people who dominate the party are the people who are positive; who are focused on winning in 2016; the people who are are focused on bringing the party together and unifying the party."
Staffers and politicians have a big influence on the management committee, with the 13 members not only including Ms McGuinness, Ms Davis and Mr Baker, but also Mr Hanson, deputy leader Alistair Coe, and Mr Seselja.
