The Liberals have selected Simon Kennedy, a partner at consulting firm McKinsey, for the federal seat of Bennelong on Sydney’s north shore, in a branch plebiscite which again saw the right-aligned candidate trump the moderates’ preferred pick.
Kennedy, who is a relative newcomer to the party, won the ballot against Gisele Kapterian, a former ministerial staffer, 148 votes to 95. He replaces the former tennis star, John Alexander, who is retiring.
For the moderates, this was a second unexpected defeat in a preselection conducted under the new Warringah rules, designed to give branch members a bigger say.
It raises questions about whether the membership of the Liberal party is more conservative than the party’s NSW leadership.
As one of the founding members of the public sector consulting division at McKinsey, Kennedy has worked closely with Charlie Taylor, who is the party’s federal treasurer and brother of the energy minister, Angus Taylor, who was also at McKinsey prior to entering politics.
According to those present at Kennedy’s presentation to selectors, he claimed credit for advising on the design of the $89bn jobkeeper program while at McKinsey.
Kennedy reportedly said McKinsey had provided advice to cabinet ministers about the design of the scheme. The scheme is credited with having prevented wide-scale job losses but after the economy recovered more quickly than expected, it has been criticised for not allowing Treasury to claw back funds if businesses had overestimated the downturn in their revenues.
Kennedy told the Guardian on Thursday night he was “humbled to have been chosen as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Bennelong and energised for the campaign ahead”.
“[But] the reports regarding comments about jobkeeper are incorrect, I was involved in the provision of targeted economic advice,” he said in a statement.
“All the credit for the federal government’s Covid response – keeping thousands of Australians in work and our economy strong – goes to Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, the federal cabinet, federal Treasury and other policy leaders.”
The NSW Senate ticket is due to be decided on Saturday, with the foreign minister, Marise Payne, expected to be endorsed for the first spot and a fierce contest expected between three candidates for the third spot. (The second spot on the ticket is reserved for the Nationals.)
Senator Jim Molan appears to have the edge over senator Concetta Fierravante-Wells and the NSW Liberal women’s council president, Mary-Lou Jarvis. About 700 members of state council are eligible to vote.
On Sunday, the federal executive is meeting and there is still concern in the party that it may stage an intervention in the troubled NSW branch. The federal executive had set a deadline of 25 March for the NSW division to resolve its long-running preselection impasse.
Two of the most contentious preselections for two winnable seats – Parramatta and Hughes – are due to be held next week with plebiscites planned. In Parramatta, Charles Camenzuli is the frontrunner, but the likely outcome in Hughes is unclear, with three nominees including state MP Melanie Gibbons.
It is still possible that the federal party could intervene in these and other seats. There are two longer shot seats that have not been decided – Warringah and Greenway. It is possible the federal party will step in to appoint candidates with the federal election looming in May.
Matthew Camenzuli, a member of the state executive and cousin of Charles Camenzuli, has sought an urgent hearing of his case in the NSW supreme court against the federal executive for an earlier intervention which saw the federal party confirm the preselections of two ministers and a sitting MP.
Camenzuli is challenging the action as beyond power and arguing the ministers and MP should also face branch votes. The case is due in court on 31 March.
Comment has been sought from Kennedy.
This story was amended on 24 March 2022. An earlier version said Simon Kennedy had reportedly claimed credit for designing jobkeeper.
