A dumped Liberal Party moderate has been stripped of an award after publicly criticising the Abbott government and the conservative right.
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A fresh war has erupted in the ACT Liberal Party with Gary Humphries stripped of the prize by a committee on which his successor, Senator Zed Seselja, sits.
The former ACT chief minister was due to receive the Margaret Reid award for more than 25 years of outstanding service to the Liberal Party.
But the prize was revoked by the ACT branch last month after Mr Humphries wrote an opinion piece for The Canberra Times criticising the ACT Liberals as ''foot soldiers'' for Tony Abbott.
Withdrawal of the award came at a time when the federal government was spruiking itself as a party of free speech to sell its controversial proposal to change the racial discrimination act.
The piece delivered a broadside at the party, which Mr Humphries said was overrun by ''creeping conservatism'', and called on the ACT Liberals to differentiate themselves from the Abbott government or risk years in the political wilderness.
Mr Humphries was ousted from his role as Liberal senator for the ACT last year after a right-wing push that saw former ACT opposition leader now Senator Seselja installed after a bitter preselection battle.
Senator Seselja sits on the 13-member management committee that stripped Mr Humphries of his award, but it is understood he was not present at the meeting where the decision was made.
One party source said it was extraordinary to see recognition of ''30 years of loyal service wiped out with one article in The Canberra Times''.
''It's almost incumbent on former politicians once they are out of the fray to discuss where their party is at and provide advice for the future,'' he said.
''Amanda Vanstone, Peter Reith, there's a myriad of them who write op-eds. That doesn't make them Liberal betrayers.''
Mr Humphries would not comment.
ACT Liberal Party president Peter Collins confirmed the award had been revoked but said it was an internal party matter and public discussion was inappropriate.
''I am most irritated that internal party matters are being made public by people for their own little snide remarks,'' he said.
Mr Humphries represented the Liberal Party in the federal and ACT parliaments for nearly 25 years.
He joined the party in 1980.
The Margaret Reid award is named after the former Liberal senator for the ACT who became the first woman elected president of the Senate.
The award honours an ACT Liberal who has given more than 25 years of service and made a ''significant contribution at national, state or territory level to the development of the party in terms of innovation, political thought, leadership, policy direction or administration or electoral achievement''.
