By Royce Millar & Ben Schneiders
A doctor and senior Mormon who
blames ungodly love for HIV, as well as a prominent campaigner against the Safe Schools program, have been elected to positions in the Victorian Liberal Party.
They are
among at least five Mormons elected as party officers at last week’s state
conference.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr Ivan Stratov won a seat on the party’s powerful administrative committee as
part of a ticket of ultra-conservatives and religious activists who are centred
around 28-year-old Liberal factional whirlwind, Marcus Bastiaan.
Liberal
elders believe Dr Stratov to be the first Mormon to hold a senior party
position in Victoria.
Also elected, but in a more junior position as a party delegate,
was controversial anti-Safe Schools campaigner, and Mormon, Marijke Rancie.
In her Liberal delegate campaign
statement she described herself as a ''lobbyist against the appalling Marxist
Safe Schools programs’’.
Ms Rancie,
in online videos, called on Victorian parents to get ‘‘really angry’’ about the
Safe Schools program, which she said was ‘‘grooming’’ children.
The Department of Education has said a number of
claims made by Ms Rancie were false.
Sources
confirmed that five or more Mormons were elected as party delegates, including
Cynthia Watson and her husband Elliot, out of 79 people elected to party
positions.
Where their conservative
morality has made Mormons reliable supporters of the Republican Party in the US
– especially in their home state of Utah – Australian Mormons have not
traditionally been prominent in party politics.
The Bastiaan faction’s push for power paid off
at last weekend’s Liberal State Council when it won 13 of 19 seats on the
powerful administrative committee in an alliance with party president Michael
Kroger and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.
Mr Bastiaan was elected party
vice-president.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott also recently
met senior Mormons and missionaries in Melbourne where he reportedly spoke of
his own experience of training to be a Catholic priest.
Dr Stratov was previously involved
in the Family First Party. Alongside Mr Bastiaan, he has actively recruited
Mormons and others to the Liberal party.
The
Age approached Dr Stratov for comment.
In 2017, Dr Stratov sparked controversy while
speaking at an anti-Safe Schools forum in Bendigo, part of his Liberal
recruitment drive, when he blamed HIV on lapsed moral judgement.
“I studied a disease called HIV; 35 million
people have died from that disease because they all decided they were going to
make man’s love, not God’s love,” Dr Stratov reportedly told his audience.
The Age quoted Dr Stratov in 2017 as saying that his
task for signing up new Liberal members had been made easier by community anger
over progressive policies including the Safe Schools program and the assisted
dying legislation.
How many Mormons have signed up to the Liberal
party is unclear. One senior conservative estimates there are about 50 across
Victoria, others say the figure is much higher.
Some more
moderate Liberals see last weekend’s result as an effective takeover of the
party by social conservatives likely to lead to more progressive Liberal MPs
being replaced.
They also
fear that many moderates and progressives may now abandon the party.
Further reading at the links below:
https://bit.ly/2rtS9OO
https://bit.ly/2rtyuj1
Who's behind the Safe Schools videos?
Marijke Rancie on Facebook as Political Posting Mumma
Michael Rancie
Rancie Financial
