Is NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman in control of his own party? Even his allies are wondering this week after he failed to get two of his preferred candidates onto the Liberal council ticket in his own backyard, Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, and afterwards scolded party operatives in a letter leaked to Crikey.
On Wednesday, the party’s state executive voted 12-9 in favour of a council election ticket that didn’t include the sitting mayor, Carmelo Pesce, or the deputy mayor, Carol Provan, despite lobbying by Speakman to keep them on the team ahead of the September 14 local elections.
Crikey can reveal Speakman sent an incensed letter to the state party president later the same evening, where he blasted the selection process as not being “democratic” and asked that the party machine allow Liberal members to help Pesce and Provan campaign as independents.
The letter was addressed to president Don Harwin and state director Richard Shields, and signed by Speakman and two other Liberal state MPs representing electorates in the Shire.
“We refer to the sudden decision, by a minority of those on state executive eligible to vote, to endorse a Liberal ‘ticket’ for the Sutherland Shire Council election on 14 September which (over our objection in the absence of any attempt at a democratic local preselection) included neither [Pesce or Provan],” the letter said.
“Whether or not Cr [councillor] Pesce and/or Cr Provan seek or are granted ‘dispensation’ to run as independent candidates or remain as members of the Liberal Party, we ask for an immediate blanket dispensation from state executive to allow any Liberal Party member to assist either or both in the course of the forthcoming election.”
The other signatories were Miranda MP Eleni Petinos and Holsworthy MP Tina Ayyad. The letter noted Provan was recently awarded an Order of Australia for her services to local government and the community, and described Pesce as a “successful mayor of eight years”.
But it’s clear that the trio of MPs were in the minority when it came to supporting Pesce. Party sources told Crikey the process wasn’t a captain’s call by Harwin either, as Pesce claimed in an interview with the local newspaper The Leader on Wednesday.
“The president was talking to all the local branches, and the consensus from the vast majority was no Carmelo on the ticket,” one person with insight into the process said.
Party ‘out of touch’ after dumping woman
Provan appears to have been a casualty of her closeness with Pesce. Her dumping led to some heated correspondence as well: in another message leaked to Crikey, sent by Waverley councillor Sally Betts and circulated among other members of the state executives when the vote was happening, Betts said she was “shocked” Provan was about to be cast aside.
“I am shocked that Carol Proven [sic], a woman with an untarnished record but has given amazing support to the Liberal Party and the Sutherland Shire, has been dumped from the ticket,” Betts wrote.
“I would not be surprised if tomorrow the news is that again state executive have proved to be out of touch as they throw aside another impressive woman. Without Carol and the current mayor we are handing the [Sutherland] mayoralty to our opponents.”
The letter, which was addressed to the NSW Liberal Party affairs manager, noted Betts had been contacted by Speakman and “four other state MPs all asking me to [vote] against this proposal”. Betts declined to comment when reached by Crikey.
Former Liberals break silence
In his letter, Speakman referred to the possibility Pesce and Provan could get dispensation to run as independents while remaining Liberal Party members. He need not have bothered. Shortly following Wednesday’s vote, both councillors quit the party.
That means they’re no longer bound by Liberal Party secrecy rules, which prevent members from commenting on internal party matters.
“I have resigned from the Liberal Party and I’m going to run as an independent,” Provan, a two-time former Sutherland Shire mayor, told Crikey.
“I’m very disappointed that it happened like this — I wasn’t given any warning. Don came down here, came to my home and sat in my lounge room and told me: ‘You’ve got a great reputation. The Liberal Party is very happy with you.’
“I was a bit blindsided, I would have thought I’d be given some explanation why I was not put on the ticket. I’ve served for 23 years. But that’s politics, isn’t it?
“Mark is such a lovely man, he doesn’t get upset too often, but he rang me and said this was dreadful.”
‘Told him to get stuffed’
Pesce, who was first elected to the council in 2012 and served a previous stint as mayor from 2015-2020, lambasted Harwin and some of his other former party colleagues when reached by Crikey.
“Don Harwin took it upon himself to decide what was right for the Shire, he went against the will and strong dissent of Mark Speakman,” he said.
“This is [Speakman’s] backyard, and every single local MP supported me. Local branches didn’t get a say, and I’m told about 60 to 70 members locally will resign.”
Pesce said Harwin had indeed offered him the chance to run as an independent while remaining a Liberal Party member, but that he declined.
“I told him to get stuffed — you’re not getting my membership money, that’s an insult. We would have had to preference the Liberals,” he said, adding he intended to mount his own campaign for council with the hope of cooperating with Provan.
Speakman’s ticket rejected
Sources said the ticket that passed the vote on Wednesday was preceded by two other proposed tickets, one suggested by Speakman and one by freshman Cook MP Simon Kennedy.
“Both were rejected by Harwin because they had Carmelo on it,” one source said.
“Speakman and Kennedy were both trying to accommodate Carmelo somewhere. Speakman has worked with Carmelo for a long time, and he can’t turn his back on him. I respect that. But they didn’t get in touch with all the branches. Harwin did, and the reason he rejected the tickets was because he believed that council would be dysfunctional.”
One source, who described themselves as an ally of Speakman, said the leader’s sense of “decency” had gotten in the way of his strategic thinking.
“I like Mark, he’s a sincere and decent guy. He shouldn’t be in politics, he’s that decent. This has damaged Mark — he’s been backing [Pesce and Provan] to run as independents, and they didn’t care about his plea. That’s not nice, that’s stupid,” the person said.
Yet another letter leaked
Speakman’s letter-writing campaign didn’t end on Wednesday. In another missive, sent on Thursday and seen by Crikey, Speakman and Petinos urged Harwin and Shields to allow yet another Liberal who missed out on the party ticket to run as an independent.
“Among other things the ‘ticket’ did not include Marie Simone, a former [Sutherland] councillor and Dame Commander of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta — the Ecumenical Order, Grand Priory of Australia,” the letter said.
“If Dame Marie seeks to run as an independent, we ask that state executive grant her ‘dispensation’ to do so.”
The letter, marked as “urgent”, repeated the assertions the ticket voting process hadn’t been “democratic” and was decided by a minority, and again asked that party members be allowed to help Simone campaign.
Some of the people who did make it onto the ticket included former Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons and Meredith Laverty, who was one of Scott Morrison’s electorate officer staffers in Cook. Gibbons is the partner of current councillor Kent Johns, who didn’t get selected again, and Laverty is married to Liberal powerbroker Scott Briggs. It’s understood the process isn’t fully complete and more names will be added to the ticket in the coming weeks.
Crikey reached out to Speakman’s office for comment, and extended the invitation to Petinos and Ayyad as well, but a spokesperson declined to comment. Harwin was contacted via a Liberal Party spokesperson, who declined to comment.
