The New South Wales Liberal leader, Mark Speakman, says the party’s state director, Richard Shields, must resign immediately after a “monumental stuff-up” over next month’s local government elections.
The Liberal party missed the noon Wednesday deadline to lodge the necessary paperwork to nominate candidates, meaning there will be no Liberal candidates in eight councils in Greater Sydney and regional NSW at the 14 September elections.
All up, the Liberals failed to nominate 136 candidates across 17 councils, according to election analyst Ben Raue, who runs the Tally Room blog. The party managed to “partially nominate” candidates in some of the affected councils, such as Canterbury-Bankstown.
Speakman on Thursday said Shields was to blame and confirmed he had spoken about his resignation with the federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
“We had a conversation. He can say what he said, but I’m … not going to say for him,” Speakman said.
“Our party administration has let the candidates, the party members and the general public down. This is a debacle. There’s no other way to describe it.
“Unfortunately, in these circumstances, the state director has to fall on his sword. He is the CEO who runs the organisation. He is the CEO who is responsible.”
Speakman would not place blame on the NSW Liberal party president, Don Harwin, when asked whether he should share responsibility for the error.
According to Raue’s analysis ahead of the NSW electoral commission’s release of the full list of candidates on Thursday afternoon, the scale of the disaster would be worse than the Liberal party had expected.
There would be no Liberal candidates in the following councils: Blue Mountains, Campbelltown, Cessnock, Lane Cove, Maitland, Northern Beaches, Shoalhaven and Wollongong, Raue predicted.
He found the following councils would be partially affected, meaning only some Liberal candidates will be able to run: Bayside, Camden, Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Coast, Georges River, Hornsby, Newcastle, North Sydney and Penrith.
Shields on Wednesday blamed the error on a lack of resources, releasing a statement that said the secretariat was “unfortunately … unable to nominate in all of the local government areas that were put forward by the state executive”.
Shields leads the Liberal secretariat, which shares responsibility for the party’s administration in NSW and is in charge of submitting the paperwork to nominate council candidates, including those who are already sitting councillors.
Guardian Australia contacted Shields for additional comment.
Speakman said he had been “personally unaware of any resourcing issues”.
“I think all of us are embarrassed that this is happening for the Liberal party,” he said.
“[Shields] should have either gathered the additional resources he needed, or, alternatively, departed from the centralised process and told at least a number of candidates to lodge their nominations themselves.”
Speakman conceded the administrative fiasco would damage the Liberals’ brand, including at future state and possibly federal elections.
He said the party was exploring whether there were any avenues for affected candidates to run, including asking the NSW Electoral Commission for leniency on the deadline or the Minns Labor government to legislate an extension.
Asked if he thought any candidates who missed out due to the error would take legal action against the party, Speakman said: “I doubt it, but I don’t know the answer.”
The NSW deputy Liberal leader, Natalie Ward, said she was “furious” on behalf of candidates, party members and voters.
“I’m so upset and disappointed for each and every one of them,” she said.
Speaking on 2GB, Dutton described the issue as a “mess”.
“The mess is obviously an administrative error where they haven’t submitted the forms on time,” he said.
“And you’re right, that’s, it’s not acceptable. And those discussions are taking place at the moment. We want, you know, to make sure that there is a proper administrative process put in place. And they failed in that regard. And it’s very, very disappointing to see.”
