Scott Morrison has had a significant victory in a long-running internal Liberal stoush over NSW pre-selections, after a court challenge against the legitimacy of his hand-picked candidates was dismissed.
The NSW Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed a claim that pre-selections of 12 Liberal candidates by the Prime Minister, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and former president of the federal Liberal Party Christine McDiven were invalid.
The judgment, which comes after months of factional infighting, effectively permits the Liberals' federal executive to intervene in the grassroots pre-selection process, which is usually handled by rank-and-file members.
While the election has not yet been called, it is expected to be held in May and nominations for candidates close 10 days after writs are issued.
The case centred on a decision made late last month by the Liberal Party's federal executive to appoint Mr Morrison, Mr Perrottet and Ms McDiven to pick candidates.
Initially, the three-person committee endorsed only sitting MPs Sussan Ley, Alex Hawke and Trent Zimmerman in the seats of Farrer, Mitchell and North Sydney respectively.
However, on Saturday, nine other candidates were pre-selected hours before the committee's term was due to expire.
NSW Liberal state executive member Matthew Camenzuli took the Prime Minister and two other committee members to court last week, arguing the federal executive had no standing under its constitution to make selections without state endorsement.
On Monday judges John Basten, Mark Leeming and Anthony Payne ruled the court had no jurisdiction to make decisions relating to the constitutions of political parties.
"The public interest in the operation of major political parties does not justify judicial intervention in internal party disputes generally," the judges wrote in their judgment.
The judges did however say the federal executive had "broad powers" to intervene with the state division.
Court battle began in February
The infighting first became public in February when Mr Camenzuli took Mr Hawke — the Immigration Minister and a close ally of the Mr Morrison — to the NSW Supreme Court to solve a dispute about when the state executive's powers to pre-select candidates expire.
The court ruled in Mr Camenzuli's favour, giving the state executive an extended term and effectively blocking the PM's proposed takeover of endorsements.
However, weeks went by with no pre-selections being finalised.
Then, after the federal executive decision to appoint the committee — which promptly pre-selected Ms Ley, Mr Hawke and Mr Zimmerman — Mr Camenzuli launched more legal action.
The federal intervention gave rise to accusations that Mr Morrison was trying to circumvent the democratic process around pre-selections to make "captain's picks".
Last week, outgoing Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells accused the Prime Minister of corrupting the party's NSW division by "trampling" on its constitution.
Mr Camenzuli may now escalate his case to the High Court.
However, special leave — which much be granted before matters are heard in that jurisdiction — is not guaranteed.
Last month, the Prime Minister sought to have the superior court decide the matter, in order to avoid more appeals.
However, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said it would be more efficient to have the case heard at the Court of Appeal level and requests for urgency did not "scare" her.
Last year the Victorian Supreme Court heard two similar factional feuds about the Labor Party's national executive pre-selecting candidates for federal seats.
The court found the intervention, authorised by Premier Daniel Andrews and Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, was lawful.
