The newly preselected Liberal candidate in Kiama, Melanie Gibbons, has refused to rule out striking a preference deal with the sitting MP Gareth Ward in the forthcoming New South Wales election, saying it is “up to the party”.
Gibbons, who is the outgoing MP in the southern Sydney seat of Holsworthy, endured an awkward exchange with journalists on Thursday after stunning Liberal insiders by lodging an 11th-hour nomination to run in Kiama.
Insisting that Kiama was a “very easy drive” from her home about an hour and 15 minutes away in Woronora, in the Sutherland shire, Gibbons repeatedly refused to say whether the Liberals would entertain a preference deal with the sitting MP.
“That’s not between me, that’s up for the party to decide,” she said when asked about a possible preference deal.
“And for Gareth.”
Asked whether voters deserved to know whether a deal was in train, she said: “Voters will know very, very shortly. The public will know very, very shortly.”
A former minister in the Berejiklian government, Ward is recontesting the seat as an independent despite facing criminal charges over allegations that he sexually abused a man and a 17-year-old boy in two separate incidents dating back several years.
He was suspended from both the NSW parliament and the Liberal party after charges were laid last year. He has been committed to stand trial and denies the allegations.
He remains popular within the local Liberal party despite the charges, and polling seen by the Guardian has shown he remains competitive in the race.
Internal Liberal polling meanwhile has shown the party is running third behind Ward and Labor’s candidate, the former journalist and union organiser Katelin McInerney.
Gibbons’ status as an outsider is likely to hurt her in the parochial southern NSW seat.
On Thursday, she insisted Kiama was “a second home” and said she had put her house in the Sutherland shire on the market.
“I’ve got family and friends down here. I’m down here all the time visiting family, I’ve got aunties, cousins, the works,” she said.
“[Woronora is] not close … but not far right?
“It’s a very easy drive and I’m going to place myself down here now and then. After the election, should I win, I’ll be down here all the time.
“[I have] put the house on the market.”
Gibbons previously served as a parliamentary secretary under Ward during his time as a minister, and it is understood the two are friends. She confirmed she had spoken to him since receiving the nomination.
Gibbons’ nomination came after she lost a preselection challenge in her current seat of Holsworthy, and missed out on a bid to replace the dumped Liberal upper house MP Peter Poulos.
She had previously flagged her intention to resign from NSW politics in order to run for the federal seat of Hughes at the last election, only to be convinced to stay on the promise of a spot in Dominic Perrottet’s ministry.
