“We will organise information sessions for local coordinators as to how the intricate parts of the party work ... Politicians are far more receptive to people and causes if they directly impact their chances of being in Parliament.” The group believes greater control of state and federal preselection in NSW would ensure a strong "conservative representation in Parliament". The document’s metadata suggests it was written by a staff member in a federal ministerial office last year. The staffer did not return calls or text messages. The Herald revealed on Tuesday that several Liberal MPs were concerned the NSW Reformers were working to erode their support base in Sydney's Hills District. Other documents show names, addresses and contact details of hundreds of constituents were collated from a series of petitions advertised on the NSW Reformers' page.

The petitions that netted the data of hundreds of constituents refers to "gender ideology", “gay surrogacy”, religious freedom and Zoe’s Law legislation, which would make it a crime to cause death to a fetus. The spreadsheets also contain lists of dozens of churches across Sydney to be targeted in the recruitment drive. The forms outline plans to call a specific amount of phone numbers listed in the documents per day, and estimate how many party memberships could be recruited. The NSW Reformers manifesto also outlines why the group is targeting the Liberal Party and not Labor or the Australian Conservatives. “The Australian Conservatives’ survival relies upon a supportive silent majority. This silent majority does not exist,” it says, arguing this was proven by the same-sex marriage survey result.

“We cannot afford to flee from a major party as this will forever reduce Conservative Christians to a minor influence in society with very little ability to determine legislation.” Several Liberal MPs have told the Herald of anger within the party at what they believe is a concerted effort to stack out their electorate branches. One federal NSW Liberal MP said he believed the Reformers was run by factional allies of the party's hard-right conservative Liberals. “They’re using the abortion bill to try to recruit numbers,” the federal MP said. “They’re taking those views and leveraging them for political advantage. Their dearest wish would be to get rid of Alex Hawke.”

Mr Hawke is a powerful centre-right factional player close to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. His defection from the hard-right faction of the NSW Liberals a decade ago caused great enmity among conservatives. NSW Liberal president Philip Ruddock said he didn’t have a problem with “branch development”. “My view, as the party president, is if you’re worried about being stacked, then outstack,” he said. The NSW Reformers have no contact numbers on their website, and there is no indication on the site of who leads the group. The Herald called a mobile number published on a NSW Reformers flyer and the man who answered said he had no association with the group and had not heard of it until he read about it in the Herald.

He said he did not know why his number was printed as a contact number. The man, who declined to give his name, said he was a Liberal party member. Liberal branches nationally have seen a considerable bump in members since the federal election was called. Victoria received an extra 600 members on their 10,000 base, while NSW is understood to have experienced a 10 per cent jump. Federal Liberal party president Nick Greiner said while he did not have access to membership numbers to the various state branches, “common sense dictates that when you have an unexpected victory that might generate some interest”. “I think that [increased membership] was happening for a while before the election and it seems to be accelerating,” he said. But the membership bump was “unfortunately off a relatively low base,” Mr Greiner said, “which is where major political parties around the world are”.