NSW Liberal Party takeover suffers blunder after Rob Stokes rejects committee nomination

The Prime Minister has labelled the forced federal Liberal Party takeover of its NSW branch as “a farce” and said the saga reeked of “incompetence”.

Anthony Albanese has attacked Liberal Party “incompetence” after the NSW branch was forced into a federal takeover following its failure to lodge nominations for 140 candidates in the September local government elections.

On Tuesday, the federal Liberal Party executive announced it would axe the state executive and replace it with a three-person committee, giving the state branch until Thursday to accept the changes.

However, in another about-face for the Liberal Party, former NSW minister Rob Stokes said he was not told he had been nominated for the committee prior to the public announcement and declined the offer.

Initially, he was slated to serve alongside ex-Victorian senator Richard Alston and former Victorian treasurer Robert Stockdale.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the NSW Liberal Party was in ‘chaos’. Picture: NewsWire/ Philip Gostelow

The Prime Minister said the NSW branch was in “chaos” and described the recent string of failures as “a farce”.

“If the NSW leadership of the Liberal Party has been dismissed for incompetence, how about you dismiss the federal leadership of the Liberal Party in the organisation sense for incompetence for appointing someone as an administrator who is not available and didn’t know anything about it,” he said.

Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton defended the federal intervention, stating: “Our party needs to be functional, and the way that it was operating was completely unacceptable to me.”

He also appeared to shift blame onto the NSW branch for the committee blunder, stating Mr Stokes was “put forward by the NSW division”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Rob Stokes’ nomination was made by the state division. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman said Mr Stokes had indicated “in-principle” willingness to serve on the committee but ultimately declined after he has named in the announcement put out by the federal executive.

“What has happened is someone has jumped the gun and put his name forward in a motion to federal executive of which I had no notice,” Mr Speakman said.

While he admitted it was “a hitch,” he denied responsibility for the error.

“The committee proposal went to federal executive without my knowledge. How can I be responsible for something that occurs without my knowledge?” he said.

NSW Liberal Party leader Mark Speakman said he was not made aware that Mr Stokes’ name would be put forward. Picture: NewsWire/ Max Mason-Hubers

Mr Speakman also defended the position of former NSW Liberal president Don Harwin.

“While I disagree with Mr Harwin from time to time and disagree with some of the selections that were made by state executive, I just don’t see that he has any sort of culpability for what has to happen,” Mr Speakman said.

“But it’s all irrelevant now because federal executive has resolved that there’s going to be intervention, and what matters now is whatever different views we have about that we all get together, we unite behind what has happened and take the fight up to Labor.”

Originally published as NSW Liberal Party takeover suffers blunder after Rob Stokes rejects committee nomination