The NSW Liberal party has again failed to resolve its preselection woes, virtually guaranteeing that the federal party will need to step in to finalise candidates for the looming election in May.
A proposal to hold branch votes in the electorates of Hughes, Parramatta and Eden-Monaro, where more than one person is running, and to endorse candidates in two other seats, largely failed, after the state executive rejected rule changes to fast track the process.
These changes, including being able to hold town halls via video link, required 90% support, but were scuttled by four votes against. Without the rule changes there is not enough time before the federal election in May to hold branch preselections.
After at least eight attempts at resolving the impasse at state level, it now seems inevitable that the federal executive will take over the process from the troubled branch. Some in the party believe this has been a deliberate strategy by the prime minister’s representative, Alex Hawke, who has delayed the vetting process for candidates by being unavailable until very recently.
The only progress made after Wednesday’s vote was a decision to endorse cardiologist, Michael Feneley in the Central Coast seat of Dobell, the sole person to nominate for the Liberals.
In Warringah, where there is also only person left standing, the state executive refused to endorse Lincoln Parker. Instead it will reopen nominations for a third time.
There is also no resolution in the seat of Hughes, where the Right faction has been seeking to install Alex Dore, a former Young Liberal president, who lives outside the seat, to replace maverick MP Craig Kelly.
The proposal to install Dore, who is also the nephew of the Australian newspaper’s editor in chief Chris Dore, has infuriated local Liberals. There are three other local people who have nominated, including the state MP for Holsworthy, Melanie Gibbons.
The latest failure to resolve the situation reveals the deep divisions within the NSW Liberal party.
Some members strongly support implementing what are known as the Warringah rules, which were championed by former prime minister, Tony Abbott, and embedded in the NSW division’s constitution in 2017. They call for much greater involvement of party members in selecting candidates through branch plebiscites.
But factional powerbrokers and the prime minister, Scott Morrison, want a much greater say in who becomes a federal member, arguing that electoral success requires the right person for the seat.
But the state executive has been unable to agree on this approach either.
Several earlier proposals for the state executive to step in and install candidates across winnable seats according to a deal drawn up between factional organisers failed to win support and helped spark a legal challenge in the NSW supreme court in the past fortnight.
Some of the steam was taken out of the preselection issue last week after the federal executive of the party took over the NSW division for 72 hours and installed the three sitting members who were under threat from challenges.
Sussan Ley, the environment minister, has been endorsed as the Liberal party candidate for Farrer, immigration minister Alex Hawke has been endorsed as candidate for Mitchell and Trent Zimmerman, a key figure in the moderates, is the candidate for North Sydney.
This had been one of Morrison’s key demands.
The division has now returned to the control of the NSW state executive, which has until 25 March to complete the candidate selection process.
But intervention could come earlier.
With the federal election just weeks away, local Liberals are furious at not having candidates in the field to campaign against the ALP and independents who are running on platforms of strong local representation and climate change.
However, more federal intervention raises the prospect of further legal challenges.
