Canberra Liberals leader Leanne Castley has immediately suspended Elizabeth Lee and Peter Cain from the party room, and is seeking to remove them permanently.
The two backbenchers crossed the floor in the ACT Legislative Assembly over moves to reduce the sitting calendar from 13 weeks to 12 next year.
Ms Lee and Mr Cain voted with the Greens and the two independents in a failed attempt to keep the number of sitting weeks in 2026 the same.
“I accept the views of the majority of my party room colleagues, respectfully I disagree,” Ms Lee said before the vote.
“I made that very clear to my colleagues as soon as this issue was raised … it is a very difficult decision to not vote in the same way as my colleagues.”
Leanne Castley says she will seek to permanently remove the two backbenchers from the party. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
The move ended up being voted down, with Labor and the remaining Canberra Liberals not supporting it.
But in a statement, Ms Castley said the pair had been suspended from the Canberra Liberals party room immediately for their actions.
She added she would “be seeking to remove them permanently”.
“As this is an internal party room matter, I will be making no further comment,” she said.
In announcing he was crossing the floor, Mr Cain said it should be “obvious” every non-government MLA should be working hard to hold Labor to account.
“Obviously I do see that as putting me apart from my party room colleagues, in company with Ms Lee in doing that,” he said.
“I do respect the arguments they’ve presented but, with respect, I think an extra week is not an onerous addition.”
In September, the Liberal shadow cabinet adopted a new set of principles, which excluded Mr Cain and Ms Lee from key discussions about policies and strategies.
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