Last week, a prominent member of the Liberals’ right faction, Tim James, snared the safe New South Wales state seat of Willoughby replacing the former Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian, a leading moderate, in the lower north shore Sydney seat.
No one saw it coming. The lower north shore is a moderate stronghold within the party and the popular former Willoughby council mayor Gail Giles-Gidney, a moderate with a high local profile, was seen as the frontrunner.