‘‘It’s just knowing they’re always organising against you, and then the amount of time and effort it takes to keep in touch with all your branch members when you knew there was a significant stack growing in your electorate.’’ It is understood those targeted federally included Ms Hume, Mr Paterson and Mr Wilson.

In state politics, members targeted are believed to have included Kim Wells, Inga Peulich, Heidi Victoria and Nick Wakeling. One federal MP said the faction was particularly powerful and that qualified and respected MPs were facing a genuine threat simply for being in a different faction. ‘‘Had they been in power for a longer period of time they would’ve been successful in replacing a number of sitting federal MPs,’’ the federal MP said. ‘‘And if they’d held power while we were in federal opposition then they certainly would have rolled a lot more people.’’

New text messages obtained by The Age also reveal how Mr Bastiaan ran an orchestrated effort to embed factional members in paid roles within federal MPs’ offices and party headquarters at 104 Exhibition Street. Loading Text messages to a former faction member reveal Mr Bastiaan made requests to open up jobs in MPs’ offices for supporters, and to provide a day’s work a week to ‘‘get another day per week out of them for factional stuff for free’’. In the exchange seen by The Age, Mr Bastiaan asked a staffer working for federal MP Michael Sukkar whether he could find jobs for the faction’s volunteers. ‘‘Just want to get some of them blooded into political rolls [sic] so we can wheel them out for campaign staff at 104,’’ Mr Bastiaan wrote.

‘‘Would make my job lots easier if we have some more of our organisers as staffers. ‘‘Even just a day per week gives them a sense of value and we will get another day per week out of them for factional stuff for free. The staffer responded: ‘‘Definately! [sic]’’ The practice of trying to get factional allies into party jobs is commonplace in political parties, and The Age does not suggest Mr Bastiaan broke any party rules, but the aggression with which he sought to build his empire irked MPs in rival factions. Those MPs believe the jobs were being procured for supporters in exchange for helping in branch stacking. One veteran state MP said the effect of embedding the supporters in MPs’ offices was to ensure the power broker had ‘‘lieutenants working in every corner’’ of the organisation to extend the faction’s influence.

‘‘It’s a bad look,’’ the state MP said. ‘‘Because you know there are only a certain amount of seats that can be allocated to repay people for helping out in branch stacking, and when there aren’t enough seats, they look for full-time employment in offices and party headquarters. Loading ‘‘It’s totally unacceptable.’’ A federal MP said the move and the texts showed how strong Mr Bastiaan’s web of influence had become, with supporters working throughout the party’s headquarters at 104, as well as in posts in state and federal electorate offices.

The insight into factional workings comes as the Liberal Party reels from revelations Mr Bastiaan and steering committee chair Paul Mitchell used racist and homophobic terms to refer to party members and supporters. Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell denied to The Age that they sent the messages. However, in correspondence with printing industry publication Australian Printer, Mr Mitchell, who works for an industry body, issued a formal apology to the Printing Industries board. While not confirming he sent the messages, he told Australian Printer: “I would like to provide an unreserved apology for those alleged comments. I cannot confirm whether or not I did make the messages, as I do not have a copy of the thread, which is why I denied it in the Fairfax thread,’’ Mr Mitchell said. “If they were made, I apologise unreservedly for causing any offense. The word curry was not meant to be use in a derogatory manner. If it was made, and if it is true, the comment was made among someone of Indian heritage, and was not intended to cause any offense.” Mr Bastiaan’s lawyers repeated the claims made to The Age on Wednesday that the text messages came from a work phone used by multiple people, and denied Mr Bastiaan sent the messages.

Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell were contacted for further comment through their lawyers.