A senior Liberal official who distributed fake pamphlets that falsely linked Labor to terrorism is resisting calls to call off a political comeback at next month's local government elections.
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Jeff Egan, a former member of the NSW Liberal executive, was photographed distributing pamphlets at the 2007 election that portrayed Labor as forgiving of terrorism in an ultimately unsuccessful dirty tricks campaign to retain the federal seat of Lindsay.
The PR businessman, who was forced out of the Liberals as the flyer fiasco overtook the Howard government's final re-election campaign, is making a comeback next month. He will stand for the Liberal party for Blue Mountains council.
Labor leader Luke Foley called for Mr Egan to be removed from the party's ticket.
"Jeff Egan was a senior Liberal Party operative when he was caught red-handed distributing racist leaflets," he said. "His involvement in that scandal should have barred him from ever seeking public office."
Mr Foley called on Premier Mike Baird to petition for Mr Egan's removal. Mr Baird declined to comment.
Mr Egan, who is on the Liberal party's federal council, and the Opposition Leader have a history of bad blood.
Mr Egan, who declined to comment, launched a private prosecution against Mr Foley and two other ALP figures for alleged assault, after he claimed he had been held by the arms and detained while they photographed him in the act of allegedly dropping the leaflets into letterboxes.
The material carried the ALP logo and was written as from the non-existent "Islamic Australia Federation". The material praised the Labor Party for supporting Muslim terrorists.
A spokeswoman for the Liberal party noted that Mr Egan had been found not guilty of distributing unauthorised election material in 2009.
Mr Foley and other Labor figures including former Senator Steve Hutchins testified that they had caught Mr Egan in the act of distributing the material.
Mr Egan has always denied involvement.
The year after the election he overturned his expulsion from the party, successfully arguing it was improper.
In 2009 a magistrate found Mr Egan not guilty of distributing unauthorised election material after police brought charges against him and four others.
"The evidence tends to show that for Mr Egan it was just a routine letterbox drop, similar to many others he had done for the Liberal Party," Magistrate Geoff Bradd found.
But his party colleague, the husband of the seat's outgoing MP Liberal Jackie Kelly, Gary Clark, was convicted and fined $1000.
Mr Egan later dropped the suit against Mr Foley and his Labor peers.
Ms Kelly famously downplayed the episode as a harmless "Chaser-style" prank.
Mr Egan has previously served on the council for eight years, including as its deputy mayor, until 2004.
