The NSW Liberal Party has suspended NSW upper house member Peter Poulos from the party for sending explicit photos of another MP five years ago and has dumped him as a candidate at the upcoming state election.
The party announced on Saturday afternoon it had exercised special campaign powers to suspend Poulos for six months. He was therefore disendorsed from his winnable spot on the upper house ticket, with five weeks to go until polling day.
Peter Poulos has been suspended from the Liberal Party after admitting sending explicit images of Hawkesbury MP Robyn Preston, inset.
In a torrid 48 hours for the government, the suspension followed Damien Tudehope’s resignation as finance minister on Friday after it emerged he owned shares in Transurban, which controls most of Sydney’s toll roads. Tudehope had been involved in cabinet policy decisions about Transurban.
Poulos apologised to fellow Liberal MP Robyn Preston for sending the explicit photos to other party members. The pictures were from a Penthouse magazine “pet” shoot she modelled for in the 1980s. He also resigned from his parliamentary secretary role on Friday.
On Saturday morning, Premier Dominic Perrottet effectively called for Poulos to be disendorsed, telling reporters he was “appalled, horrified and disgusted” by the MP’s actions and the Liberal Party ought to “act appropriately” regarding his candidacy.
“I’m obviously very close with Robyn Preston; she’s worked for me, we’ve been friends for a very long period of time, and I know the distress at that time that that caused her,” Perrottet said.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.Credit: Rhett Wyman
It was a dramatic change of tune from earlier in the week, when Perrottet said of Poulos that “people make mistakes” and “no one is perfect”.
Later on Saturday, the NSW Liberal Party announced Poulos had been suspended following discussions between state director Chris Stone and party president Maria Kovacic.
“While Mr Poulos has apologised for his actions to the person concerned and to the community, his conduct fell short of the standard of behaviour expected of members of our party,” a Liberal Party spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
“The party will promptly fill the vacancy on the ticket in line with the requirements of our constitution.”
Leading candidates to replace Poulos on the ticket are two outgoing Liberal MPs – the member for Menai, Melanie Gibbons, who lost preselection for her lower house seat, and upper house member Shayne Mallard, who was replaced in a factional deal to get more women the ticket.
Both confirmed their interest on Saturday. Gibbons said she had been contacted by colleagues “and it’s worth thinking about”, while Mallard said he was “interested in continuing my service to the people of NSW”.
Poulos circulated the images in the lead-up to a bitter preselection stoush for the seat of Hawkesbury. At the time, Poulos was not in parliament (he filled a casual upper house vacancy in 2021), but was working as a political staffer.
He told The Daily Telegraph last weekend that it was a “regrettable mistake” but that he and Preston were great friends, and she was surprised the story had surfaced again. Preston told the newspaper the same thing.
Poulos did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.
Labor seized on the government’s disarray and indicated it was willing to hold Poulos’ candidacy against Perrottet during the election campaign. Opposition Leader Chris Minns said on Saturday it was “appalling behaviour by any stretch” and voters would bear it in mind in the polling booth.
“I don’t think there’d be any workplaces, certainly not in the NSW public service, where behaviour like that would not lead to instant dismissal,” Minns had said on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, Perrottet refused to release legal advice from his department which he says cleared Tudehope of knowingly breaching the ministerial code of conduct by failing to disclose potential conflicts of interest regarding his Transurban shares.
He praised Tudehope for making the tough decision to resign “despite what the advice [said]” as it would have been weaponised by Labor during the election campaign if he had stayed.
Tudehope said he disclosed his family superannuation fund in 2019 and updated the disclosure annually, and when he found out he owned Transurban shares, he removed them from the fund.
Asked if he could guarantee other ministers weren’t in the same situation, the premier said the ministerial code of conduct was clear and that all ministers were aware of their obligations.
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