A dumped Liberal MLA has strongly disagreed with the allegations her former party made when they dropped her from the ballot and suggested she could have been booted from the party out of "pure jealousy".
Elizabeth Kikkert has called for the release of the full footage of an incident in the Canberra Liberals' division office, in which she said she was holding the phone to a staff member to listen to a phone call.
The member for Ginninderra, who has been confirmed as a Family First candidate, indicated she was considering defamation action.
The Canberra Times revealed a short clip of security camera footage that has been shared among Liberals as evidence Elizabeth Kikkert was involved in an altercation in the party's division office that contributed to the party's decision to drop her as a candidate.
The clip shows Mrs Kikkert in the party's division office moving a mobile phone towards a staff member. The staff member appears to move away from Mrs Kikkert after she reaches up towards his head with a mobile phone.
The footage does not conclusively appear to show contact being made.
Mrs Kikkert told ABC radio on Wednesday she was attempting to pass her phone to a staff member. "I just needed him to speak to the person on the other line, and he refused," she said.
The Canberra Liberals have not responded to questions from The Canberra Times about the footage.
Mrs Kikkert was disendorsed by the Liberals after the party's management committee unanimously decided to remove her from its ticket. They announced the decision in the early hours of the morning on September 10
"This decision was not taken lightly, but reflects the seriousness with which the Liberal Party takes compliance with obligations of candidates and MLAs under the Electoral Act 1992, including but not limited to disclosure of donations and electoral expenditure," the party said in a statement at the time.
Mrs Kikkert, who had the highest primary vote of any Liberal in Ginninderra in 2020, said she was given no opportunity whatever to make her case and that she had not received notification of a formal complaint against her within the Liberals.
"I have been very, very accurate with my donations. I've been compliant with the Electoral Act. There is nothing wrong there," Mrs Kikkert said.a
Mrs Kikkert was asked whether she had taken undeclared cash donations.
"No, no, not one bit at all. Everything that I have disclosed, all of the donations that went into my website went directly into the Canberra Liberals' financial bank account," she said.
"Nothing came to me and the electoral commissioner actually received no formal complaint about me."
Mrs Kikkert said it was "very concerning and very dishonest" the Canberra Liberals had based their decision to disendorse her on any allegations about financial disclosures.
Asked whether she could support the Liberal Party in a balance-of-power situation in the Legislative Assembly, Mrs Kikkert said it would depend on the party's policies.
"They're very good people in the Liberal Party. ... James Milligan and Jeremy Hanson, they've been great supporters. They respected my decision making throughout the last year," she said.
After being confirmed as a Family First party candidate, Mrs Kikkert reaffirmed her strong opposition to abortion - "You're pretty much killing a baby inside a womb, so I'm against it," she said - and to material about LGBTQIA+ relationships in schools.
"I called it 'safe sex' instead of 'safe schools' because that's what it was. Kids go to school to learn, right? They'll learn maths. They'll learn history. They'll learn English. That's what they are there for, not to teach them some secret agenda of something else," she said.
