In another text message exchange between Mr Bastiaan and a former staffer to MP Michael Sukkar, Mr Bastiaan warns about "fag Catholics" who are "so far in the closet, if they end up coming out they will blow up big time with lots of secrets". Sent between April 2017 and the party's state conference in April of this year, the messages also named and referred to staffers working for federal MPs including Victorian veteran MP Kevin Andrews, former frontbencher Michael Sukkar and current Cities Minister Alan Tudge. There is no suggestion that the federal MPs or other people who were members of the text message or Facebook groups participated in the exchange or condoned the language used. The exchanges cover the tumultuous lead-up to the Victorian party's hard-fought 2018 state conference, in which former party president Michael Kroger, who was largely supported by the group in the Facebook and text messages, faced a challenge for the presidency.

At the time, Mr Bastiaan was a member of the party's 19-member state administrative committee, while Mr Mitchell was chair of the party's steering committee. Both roles are unpaid and thought to take up more than 20 hours a week of work recruiting new members, mobilising existing members and fundraising, as well as helping to provide broader policy direction for the parliamentary party. Ahead of the 2018 state conference, some party members backed former federal Liberal frontbencher Nick Minchin to challenge Mr Kroger, but the contest never eventuated. Instead, Mr Kroger faced a challenge from long-term party member and energy executive Greg Hannan.

With the support of Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell, who together with allies controlled a block of votes believed to be around 400, Mr Kroger was re-elected in a landslide with a majority of 721 to 448 votes. In an exchange sent a week before the conference, Mr Bastiaan jokes it's "time to send [Nick] Minchins dry bones back to Adelaide". Another exchange demonstrates Mr Bastiaan's sour relationship with newly appointed Victorian Liberal leader Michael O'Brien, in which Mr Bastiaan accuses Mr O'Brien of briefing against him, and says: "Grow up and focus on doing your job." When contacted, Mr O'Brien declined to comment on the exchange, which had been uploaded onto a Facebook group.

Both Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell vigorously denied the text message and Facebook exchanges. A letter sent to The Age by lawyers acting for Mr Mitchell say he has no recollection of the exchanges and believes that they were fabricated by a third party. He has denied he has any record of the exchanges, and pointed out that on Facebook Messenger it is easy to change "nicknames" of the people in the conversation without seeking permission from the author. Lawyers for Mr Bastiaan said that he did not send, nor was he the author of the text messages. They also said he has no recollection of being privy to the conversations.

"We firmly assert that our client does not use pejorative language such as this. He would also not use the word in the context of a religious group and is perturbed to be portrayed in this way," the legal representative said. The lawyer acting for Mr Bastiaan also claimed the phone and number used in the text exchanges was a work phone and not his personal mobile phone. The lawyer claimed it was not password protected, and had been used by numerous other people at his work in the past to send work-related messages. "This clearly highlights that the author and/or sender of the text messages, if they do exist, could be a number of different persons," the lawyer said. The Age has seen live versions of the Facebook message threads and text messages from two sources. The Age has also obtained a separate statutory declaration confirming all messages and screenshots sighted are genuine.

Other exchanges seen by The Age from a Facebook group within the Liberal Party representing a conservative faction called "Ankara" include provocative language and statements about various ethnic groups within the party, including those who support the party because "they know communism when they see it". The messages cap a bruising 18 months for the federal party and the Victorian branch, which is still grappling with a crushing state election defeat that has big implications for the party's chances at the next federal election. The Victorian party has also been rocked by high-profile claims of bullying and intimidation by new crossbench member Julia Banks, who blasted the party earlier in the year for “cultural and gender bias, bullying and intimidation". Within Victoria, party officials and state MPs have witnessed a broader schism developing among members. The party is now roughly divided into a conservative faction formerly headed by Mr Kroger, supported by Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell, against a more progressive faction including federal heavyweights such as Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer and the president of the Senate Scott Ryan.

But the conservative faction has splintered, as state administrative committee members including female vice-president Karina Okotel and a large number of devout Christian and Mormon supporters recruited by Mr Bastiaan and Mr Mitchell distance themselves from the powerbrokers. Several high-profile members of the faction declined to speak to The Age when contacted for comment. In December, prominent anti-Safe Schools campaigner and former faction member Marijke Rancie posted a missive on one of the conservative faction's Facebook chat forums giving notice that she had left the faction. She urged other faction members to avoid being used to bolster another person's power base. "No one should feel that they 'control' anyone's vote or that because they invited them to get involved, that they own their vote," she wrote.

"As time has gone on [I] have discovered I have been used for other people's personal agenda for power. Don't be like me." Ms Rancie declined to comment further.