Frydenberg says NSW Liberal preselection process ‘less than ideal’

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has conceded the NSW Liberal Party’s preselection process has been “less than ideal” heading into the election as he denied accusations that Prime Minister Scott Morrison used racial vilification to help win a seat in Parliament.

The NSW Liberal Party only on Saturday named candidates for nine seats across the state, despite the federal election due to be called in a matter of days amid a factional brawl inside the party.

Josh Frydenberg says the NSW Liberal Party’s preselection process has been less than ideal.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The candidates were chosen on Saturday morning by the three-person committee that took over the running of the NSW division - which comprises Mr Morrison, Premier Dominic Perrottet and former party president Christine McDiven.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed on Sunday that Mr Morrison’s challenger to enter Parliament in 2007, Michael Towke, stood by his claim that the Prime Minister was directly involved in “racial vilification” against him.

Mr Towke ended 15 years of silence on the incendiary claim about the long-disputed ballot by saying Mr Morrison told party members they should not vote for him because he was from a Lebanese family and because of rumours he was a Muslim.

Mr Frydenberg said the Prime Minister has “categorically denied” the claims.

“And Jamal Rifi, who is one of Australia’s leaders of the Australian Muslim Lebanese community, has said about Scott Morrison that he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body,” the Treasurer told the ABC’s Insiders program.

Asked whether anyone had ever come to him with concerns about Mr Morrison using racist language or his behaviour, Mr Frydenberg said: “No, no.”

Mr Frydenberg said the NSW preselection process had been “less than ideal to say the least, and obviously I’m glad it’s been sorted out now”.

“But don’t think we’re the only side of politics that have had issues in our own division,” he said. “In the Labor Party, as recently as last week... there was a challenge in the High Court last week to the federal Labor Party division taking over the Victorian division.”

Mr Frydenberg also refused to confirm whether a $10 cut to the price of medicine was not going ahead. Financial Services Minister Jane Hume and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar both referenced the cut to scripts in speeches to Parliament on Wednesday when in fact the measure was considered but never adopted in the lead-up to last week’s budget.

“What we’ve been talking about in the budget was taking 2.4 million Australians to get a reduction in the amount they pay for their [medicine],” he said.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Sunday denied the opposition was running an overly negative campaign against the Prime Minister, saying the criticisms were coming from his own side.

In an interview with the Weekend Today show, Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann said the campaign seemed to be boiling down to “a choice between a pathological liar, which is what the Labor Party seems to be calling the government, and a gutless fraud, which is what the Prime Minister essentially has dubbed you”.

“That’s a pretty-low rent campaign,” Mr Uhlmann said.

Mr Albanese responded by saying the critique of Mr Morrison was “coming from people who know him best”.

“People who know me best know that what you see is what you get,” the Labor leader said.

Jacqueline Maley cuts through the noise of the federal election campaign with news, views and expert analysis. Sign up to our Australia Votes 2022 newsletter here.