How the Conservatives chased Julia Banks off the Liberal Party

No wonder Banks warned of "retaliation" in his resignation speech on Tuesday.

"Often, when good women call or are prone to bad behavior, retaliation, retaliation and comments describe them as bad – the liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally weak or someone who should be silenced, "she said. .

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The photographer never had Banks clichés accompanying anonymous gossip, but she could see that conservative Liberals were looking to take her. And the more they were against her, the more they chased her out of the party.

Banks, born in Australia into a Greek family, gave up his career as a corporate lawyer at Kraft, GlaxoSmithKline and George Weston Foods to join the Liberal Party and present himself at Box's Chisholm headquarters. Hill, in the suburbs of Melbourne. She was the only Liberal candidate to win a Labor Party seat in the 2016 election and felt she had done it herself, thanks in part to her experience in marketing to consumers.

When Turnbull went to Melbourne during the campaign and attended a Greek festival, the party forgot to invite Banks. It sounded like crazy for a party trying to win a multicultural seat like Chisholm, and that was only repaired when Banks called on federal cabinet allies to intervene.

Victorian Liberal President Michael Kroger, a compelling figure with a higher profile than some elected MPs, said Chisholm was one of the party's victories and not a credit to Banks and his team. The Liberals argue that the party spent $ 140,000 in cash for the campaign and to help an extra $ 100,000 staff, but Banks felt that some of the liberal tactics were embarrbaded instead of helping.

The way Kroger has been running the party has creaked on Banks ever since.

The August spill created a gap between Banks and conservatives of the Victorian era, who supported Peter Dutton. She was loyal to Turnbull and could not believe that Victorians – like Greg Hunt, Alan Tudge, and Michael Sukkar – would like the Conservative Queenslander to be elected prime minister.

Banks was one of the few political parties to choose Julie Bishop as a party leadership candidate when MPs were under immense pressure to vote for Scott Morrison. The moderate party, using a group called "Friends for Stability", calculated that too many votes for Bishop in the first round would eliminate Morrison and improve Dutton's chances in the second round.

The banks still voted for Bishop. She voted for a woman she considered a better leader for a modern Australia, regardless of the constant attention of the Liberal Party to its conservative base.

"The scourge of cultural and badist prejudices, intimidation and intimidation continues against women in politics, the media and the business world," Banks said on August 24.

It's his treatment since August that changed his thinking. The sight of independent women in the lower house – Kerryn Phelps, Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie – showed that there was a better future than staying in a party that did not seem to want her.

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Banks was obviously mysterious in his election plans. She said that she would decide on her next steps next year. Will she challenge the election as an independent? It can be a symbol for a whole cohort that seems to be abandoning the Conservatives.

In the last election, Banks was the woman who helped the Liberals win. Next time she may be the woman that they could not afford to lose.