A Brisbane tradie has been receiving calls from would-be Liberals after his mobile number was mistakenly listed as belonging to the federal MP Peter Hendy in a letter the backbencher sent to constituents asking them to join the party.
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But in a rare stroke of luck for the government, Jason from Winning Appliances told Fairfax Media he was a Liberal voter and didn't mind being on the receiving end of what others might class as spam calls.
“I don't mind getting the phone calls, it makes me feel important,” he joked, shortly after offering to help with any bath or sink installations this scribe might need.
He said he had been receiving the calls for the last three to four days. Mr Hendy's letter was sent to a few hundred constituents in the Eden-Monaro electorate, outside Canberra, who had previously indicated they were Liberal supporters but not members.
One copy of the letter, obtained by Fairfax Media, is dated August 7.
It says “Would you like to become involved in the only Australian political party that believes in protecting individual freedoms; minimising interference from government in our daily lives: and encourages individual and private sector initiative?”
“You should consider joining the NSW Liberal Party,” it says and adds “your involvement can be as much or as little as you want”.
A basic annual membership costs $95 or $140 for a joint membership.
But where it indicates Mr Hendy's mobile it has printed the number for Jason from Winning Appliances.
Jason said he hoped the misdirected calls would lead to a boost for his business.
Mr Hendy said the mistake had occurred because the mobile number had previously belonged to his election campaign and an old letterhead had been used for the recruitment drive.
He apologised to Jason but offered to send him a membership pack in case he would like to join the party.
“On behalf of the Liberal party we apologise for any inconvenience we have caused to the gentleman in question and the President of the local party will contact him to apologise directly,” he said.
The Liberal membership drive comes as some party faithful threaten to quit because of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's abandoned election pledge to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.
John Roskam from the free-market think tank says some members asked to resign their membership and scores more donated more than $40,000 to fund an attack ad against the Liberal leader, because of their “white hot anger” over the prime minister's broken promise.
And in a further blow to Tony Abbott, at least three government senators are signalling they could vote in favour of a crossbench push to revive the laws and put them to the Parliament for a vote.
Family First's Bob Day says he wants to help the Liberals uphold free speech. Liberal senator Cory Bernardi says Senator Day has his support and two of his colleagues, James McGrath and Dean Smith are strongly considering backing the legislation, which until last week was draft government policy.
