Apair of Pentecostal church pastors have displaced the holders of the two key offices in the local Liberal Party.
The annual general meeting of 70 members of the Liberal Party’s MacKillop State Electoral Convention met at the Hatherleigh Football Club on Sunday and installed Pastor Matthew Neumann as its president for the coming 12 months with his wife Pastor Janine Neumann as its secretary.
The new leaders have three sons and are senior pastors with the Highway Church at Bordertown which is affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches (formerly Assemblies of God).
It was a meteoric rise for Pastor Matthew as he was unable to secure a position as a MacKillop SEC delegate at the equivalent forum a year ago.
Voting on Sunday was via a secret ballot with incumbent president and Naracoorte accountant Sonia Winter being ousted from that role but elected again as one of five representatives to the Liberal Party State Council.
Millicent registered nurse Katherine McBride was unsuccessful in her bids for re-election as MacKillop SEC secretary and State Council delegate.
Naracoorte’s Robert Bull saw off a three-way challenge for the position of vice-president while former Naracoorte Mayor David Hood was beaten for the campaign officer’s role by Liberal Party State vice-president Lachie Haynes.
Mr Hood had overseen the successful campaigns at the 2018 and 2022 elections.
Tayla Standly stood down as treasurer and Robe’s Ann Yeates was elected unopposed as her successor.
Another Robe resident Jacqui Bateman was unchallenged for the position of membership officer.
Pastor Matthew is an ex officio delegate to State Council and it will also be attended by Ms Winter, Mr Bull, Ms Bateman and Naracoorte’s Darrent Turner.
The unsuccessful candidates were Ms McBride, Sam Dodd and David Malpas.
All positions at the 2022 annual general meeting at Keith had been elected unopposed.
Lasting 4.5 hours, the meeting included a written and verbal summary of the past 12 months by Member for MacKillop Nick McBride.
The guest speaker was Tintinara resident Faith Colman and she described the activities of the Lakes and Coorong Environmental Trust.
Among the political identities in attendance were Ben Hood MLC, Adrian Pederick MP and retired MacKillop MP Mitch Williams.
The elected local government representatives present were Naracoorte Lucindale Council councillors Darren Turner and Cameron Grundy along with Robe Mayor Lisa Ruffell.
The former councillors were Mr Hood, ex-Robe Mayor Anne Hayes and James Yates (Penola and Wattle Range), Dean Burrow (Wattle Range) and Lois Hodge (Penola).
The final portion of the meeting was chaired by Pastor Matthew and he oversaw such routine matters as the election of an auditor.
Mr Yates won the backing of the meeting for his motion to allow an extra week for the SEC nomination process.
Penola’s Peter DeGaris moved the successful motion which called on Liberal Party headquarters to send membership renewals via email and traditional post.
Pastor Matthew praised Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton for his stance on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
He also noted that Liberal Party membership had dipped in MacKillop.
“We have to engage with the younger people in our community as we do not want them swayed by Greens policies,” Pastor Matthew said.
