Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley still silent on why backbenchers suspended from party room

ACT Liberal leader Leanne Castley has refused to explain why she suspended two backbenchers from the party room.

Transcript

00:00Arriving at the Legislative Assembly, the Opposition Leader didn't want to talk about

00:09suspensions.

00:10You can't explain why you've expelled Mr Cain and Ms Lee from your party room?

00:15Not now, no.

00:16I really appreciate your interest though.

00:17I will not talk about party room stuff with you today.

00:20There is a lot of confusion though, do you want them expelled from the party altogether?

00:26Absolutely not, and as said, I'm not talking about party room stuff with you Monty.

00:30The former leader, now backbencher, was also up early with questions of her own.

00:36She was spoiling for an opportunity to do this, you presented that opportunity by crossing

00:40the floor.

00:41Did I?

00:42By doing something that is an accepted Liberal Party convention, by doing what I needed to

00:46do as local member for Kaira Jong to stand up for Canberrans and my constituents to ensure

00:51that we provided the opportunity to the Opposition and the crossbench to provide more scrutiny.

00:57Is that not the case in the Canberra Liberals?

00:59Of course it's the case in the Canberra Liberals.

01:01Well, what's happening here then?

01:02I'm not talking about party room decisions Monty.

01:04Thank you for your time.

01:05Elizabeth Lee and Peter Cain were shown the party room door on Tuesday after they crossed

01:10the floor to support a push against having 12 sitting weeks next year instead of 13.

01:14It was issued pretty much straight after the debate on the extra three sitting days was

01:21concluded.

01:21So what else could have been caused by?

01:25Both backbenchers insist they remain committed to the Canberra Liberals, though Miss Lee says

01:30it's unlikely she'd consider joining her former deputy's shadow cabinet.

01:34It's not about forgiving.

01:35I mean, this is politics, but I think that when you want to be in a shadow cabinet, there's

01:40got to be a certain level of trust, and certainly I would be lying if I said that that was where

01:46it needed to be.

01:47In a written statement this afternoon, Miss Cassley agreed with Miss Lee that trust is

01:52needed to be part of shadow cabinet and says it's also necessary to be a member of party

01:56room.

01:57But days after these issues have come to a head, some on the crossbench have pointed out

02:01the opposition leader is yet to fully explain why her backbenchers have been suspended.

02:05I've been in difficult situations where I've had to deal with some very difficult issues

02:11in my time as the leader of my party and as a minister in government previously.

02:15You don't have a choice.

02:16You're front up, even if the questions are hard, because you've got to explain your position.

02:21Miss Cassley says litigating issues publicly isn't helpful in restoring trust.

02:25Her party still plans to meet early next week.