Bruce Baird had every intention of recontesting his Sutherland Shire seat of Cook in Sydney at the 2007 election. Until he didn’t.

Baird’s fate was pretty much sealed in October 2006. While the leading Liberal moderate MP was in New York on a three-month secondment to the United Nations, an annual junket granted to two backbenchers, the hard Right faction of the NSW Liberal Party stacked his branches.