Liberals must sack ‘Teflon’ Don Harwin over candidate fiasco
The evidence available shows Don Harwin is responsible for failing to register 140 candidates for the local government election. Why is he still president, asks James Willis.
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The NSW Liberal Party must think we are all mugs.
It is staggering that only one of the two people involved in this local government disaster have lost their job.
Party director Richard Shields is gone. But Don Harwin survives and remains the powerful president.
This is another day in the life of Teflon Don.
If Richard Shields is to be believed, and there’s no reason to doubt his word, Don Harwin is the man most responsible for failing to register 140 Liberal candidates for the upcoming council elections.
Let me reach from Mr Shields’ statement:
“This year my focus … has been on preparing for the upcoming federal election. To maintain this focus the NSW state president Don Harwin … volunteered to run the local government nomination process.
“State executive completed the final party endorsement as late as 10am on 14th August (2 hours before the close of nominations).
“I was not made aware that the deadline would not be met until it was too late to rectify the deficiencies.”
Why then, is Richard Shields the only person who has faced consequences?
As one senior Liberal said: “In any organisation, such a systemic failure would be followed by the removal of both the CEO and the chair. Don should follow Richard out the door.”
Mr Shields was removed after a crisis meeting at Liberal HQ which ended close to midnight on Thursday.
One person present in the meeting was then heard saying “we have dealt with one part of the problem, but not the other”, referring to Shields losing his position but Mr Harwin surviving.
I am told when attention turned to Don’s role in the mess, Mr Harwin is alleged to have “immediately shut down debate in the meeting and controlled the rest of the conversation”.
“Don was in charge of this local government process. He cannot escape culpability.” said a member of the Liberal state executive.
“The preselections, the candidates, the timetables, the endorsements and the electronic ballots were all determined by Mr Harwin, the Liberal Party president.”
Teflon Don must have more front than Myer to think he can throw someone under the bus and simply continue serving as president.
In a statement, Mr Harwin said Mr Shields “was given the opportunity to explain the circumstances to the state executive. This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.”
He also refused to answer questions when approached by my colleague James O’Doherty on Thursday night.
Readers would at this point be wondering why Don Harwin holds so much power in the Liberal Party.
Mr Harwin is a powerbroker in the moderate left faction, who have dominated the NSW branch for the last decade, but often polarised traditional conservative voters.
“The moderates control the top positions. (Opposition Leader) Mark Speakman and (Deputy) Natalie Ward are both from the left,” said one sitting Liberal MP.
In a clear show of support for his factional ally, Mr Speakman left Mr Harwin out of his strong criticism on Thursday, even though it was obvious Mr Harwin played a key role in the candidate blunder.
“He was protecting his factional ally. The left looks after the left … even when they are in the wrong,” said another sitting Liberal.
Mr Harwin’s elite ability to play politics allowed him to remain as a sitting MP in NSW Parliament for 23 years — surviving in the Upper House due to his favourable spot on the Liberal ticket.
He held a range of cushy portfolios, including the Arts, and was promoted by his factional ally, former Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who made him Special Minister of State.
“I always found Don Harwin to be unimpressive and in my opinion lazy but he somehow managed to always end up being a Minister. He knew how to play politics,” said one former Coalition minister.
Mr Harwin once famously gave an interview about the Parramatta Powerhouse Museum where he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that it would “only” cost $10 million to knock down Willow Grove, a heritage house built 140 years ago, and relocate it brick by brick.
Willow Grove is now pathetically sitting in useless pieces, a storage container somewhere in Sydney’s west, and no surprise, has no chance of being rebuilt as promised.
In early 2020, when his state government was enforcing the harshest coronavirus restrictions, Mr Harwin was caught arrogantly living it up at his holiday house in Pearl Beach.
He resigned from cabinet after receiving a $1,000 fine from police.
But after that fine was overturned, Teflon Don walked straight back in to his old ministerial position.
Don Harwin is frankly a metaphor for the internal problems facing the NSW Liberal Party — a party where the people with the least ability often hold the most power.
They will remain in opposition for as long as that continues.
Originally published as Liberals must sack ‘Teflon’ Don Harwin over candidate fiasco
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