We here at the Dead Roo have done profiles on some dodgy characters in the past, but I dare say that nothing comes close to this one. Michael Towke, the Liberal candidate for the New South Wales seat of Cook, has sparked a string of controversy with his dubious resume and complete refusal to talk to the media. I can state that neither Kieran or I have actually been able to find much that is actually true about the past of this potential future MP. Instead, the best we can do is to catalogue an amazing history of lies.

There is precious little at all on the public record about his youth. He was born Michel Moreb Taouk in July 1975. He did join the army reserve at age 17, but lied about his progress, claiming that he served as a training officer, when in fact he was discharged as a private having only undertaken basic training. He claimed to have joined the Labor Party around the same time and remained a member for only eighteen months, but as Labor eagerly disclosed to the media, he actually joined seven years later, at age 23, and was a member until at least 1999.

The next thing that we learn about Towke’s history was that he is supposedly a small businessman and has run a security business based in Redfern, Apollo Security, since 1997. His record as a small businessman was one of his major selling points to the party. The company, however, seems to simply not exist - it has not filed an annual return since 2002, has no listed telephone number, website or functioning email address, and it has not held a security license since last year. The address listed on ASIC’s records is a run-down Redfern terrace where Towke’s father lives. Towke’s father told newspapers that he could not tell them where Towke’s business actually operated from, and neighbours stated that no business had operated out of the terrace in more than 40 years. Towke claimed that the company had contracts with a number of major companies, most notably Pfizer - a claim that Pfizer roundly denies. He also told the Liberal Party that he lived in Sutherland (in the Cook electorate) throughout this period, from 1998 to 2002, whereas according to ASIC and his Redfern neighbours, he instead lived in Redfern.

It is after this period that Towke’s name begins to emerge in political circles. In the leadup to the 2004 election, Towke was heavily involved - along with new Howard biographer Peter Van Onselen - in the major branch-stacking operation in the Point Piper branch in Sydney which saw Malcolm Turnbull defeat sitting MP Peter King for preselection in the safe seat of Wentworth. Indeed, he seems to have been involved in moderate circles until relatively recently - one moderate source apparently thought Towke was stacking for the left to shore up their numbers in the wake of the likely vacancy, only to be blindsided when he himself nominated with the support of the David Clarke-affiliated hard right faction. It was about this time, last year, that Taouk anglicised his name, apparently believing it would go down better with the conservative folk of the Sutherland Shire.

Towke’s lies do not end there. He claimed to the Liberal Party that he had a “Bachelor of Telecommunications Engineering (1st Class Honours)” from the University of Sydney. The university, however, promptly revealed that he was not a graduate, but rather was undertaking a combined engineering-arts degree. He has apparently been at the degree for a while; fellow blogger Sacha recalls tutoring him “five or six years ago”.

Towke’s lies aren’t even limited to his employment history. He declared to the Liberal Party that he was a proud member of the Cronulla Sharks rugby club, which he joined in 2004. Yet only two years earlier, he was a prominent member of Cronulla’s perennial rivals, the Canterbury Bulldogs, leading a vocal group of supporters who forced the resignation of Bulldogs Leagues Club president Gary McIntyre in 2002 over a salary cap scandal. It would seem that he has little thought about changing teams in more than one context.

And so we come to the Cook preselection. Towke nominated into a field of (for the Liberal Party) very good candidates - former state Liberal president and Tourism Australia head Scott Morrison, high-profile barrister Mark Speakman, Optus executive Paul Fletcher and PBL executive David Coleman. One member of the preselection panel reportedly stated “If you had a recruitment consultant going over the seven candidates, Towke was the least credible.” Unsurprisingly, his activities here, too, reek of the dodgy. Former Liberal branch president Matthew Daniel went to the media with a statutory declaration alleging that Towke had paid “near on $30,000″ to sign up almost 400 branch members, a serious breach of party rules and grounds for suspension. Daniel also claimed that Towke tried to solicit a donation of a similar amount from moderate candidates Fletcher and Coleman in exchange for his support in the preselection. Another member, Vincent Whitefield, came forward to state that Towke had also paid for his membership.

Despite all of this history, Towke was able to win the preselection against the sterling field, and has retained the fervent support of the Clarke hard right as his trangressions leaked out over the past few days. Amazingly, throughout the whole preselection saga, Towke has bluntly refused to talk to the media at all, even the normally conservative Australian and Daily Telegraph. All of his efforts may end up coming to nothing, however, as John Howard, Bill Heffernan, state director Geoff Selig and federal director Graeme Jaeschke all reportedly baying for his blood, his preselection has been put on hold pending an investigation, and Howard has reportedly stated that he only wants Towke to continue if he is “comprehensively cleared”, which is patently not going to happen. All of this begs the bizarre question - how did an unemployed serial liar and branchstacker defeat one of the best Liberal preselection fields in years?

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