David Elliott, liberal candidate battle it out for NSW election preselection

While supporters of Transport Minister David Elliott are exploring avenues to get him re-elected next March, a host of Liberal candidates are also engaged in brutal battles to get preselected. Read The Sauce column.

Transport Minister David Elliott decided to quit politics because he could not win preselection in the seat of Castle Hill against right-winger Noel McCoy on factional grounds.

But now the party has blocked McCoy from running over concerns about his views on the lockdowns — and scrapped the preselection.

It is understood fellow prospective candidate Rajiv Chaudhri has also been rejected for breaking party rules about the use of promotional material — a claim he vehemently denies.

The Sauce can reveal efforts are underway to see if Elliott can again be given a pathway back but this would mean winning over the fractured right-wing faction, which is in total meltdown.

Conservatives let their anger known on Friday night after McCoy learned he had been dumped after entering the race as the frontrunner.

David Elliott's chief of staff Tanya Raffoul.

Reena Jethi and David Elliott.

The law firm partner, who had a reference from Finance Minister Damien Tudehope, has lodged an appeal with the party’s State Executive committee over the decision.

McCoy complained about the candidate vetting process after panel members began asking him about his views on the lockdowns rather than sticking to matters of probity.

One McCoy supporter told The Sauce the party was now heading down the same doomed pathway as it did federally.

“This is an act of treachery,” they said.

Over in Pittwater, supporters of lawyer Claire Longley was also in meltdown over the party refusing to allow her to contest the preselection for the seat her dad Jim once held.

While Longley had a membership lapse, her many high-profile backers claim it was an oversight that could be easily overlooked by the party if it was serious about increasing its number of female candidates.

It appears local councillor Rory Amon is the last man standing.

There are no shortage of female candidates in western Sydney, where Tanya Raffoul – former Freehills lawyer and chief-of-staff to Elliott – is vying for preselection against fellow lawyer Katie Mullens in the must-hold seat of Parramatta.

Elliott has described Raffoul as “exactly” the type of candidate the party is crying out for.

In Riverstone, Elliott has also thrown his support behind former teacher and local councillor Reena Jethi.

CARTWRIGHT’S ‘MODEST’ UK FLAT OVER STUDIO 51

It is where The Beatles introduced themselves to the manager of The Rolling Stones, offering him the hit song I Wanna Be Your Man.

It is also where one of the NSW Government’s highest paid public servants — UK Agent-General Stephen Cartwright — can be revealed to be living in taxpayer-subsidised apartment costing 1050 British pounds a week.

Labor operatives examining emails tabled in state parliament as part of the now concluded Barilaro inquiry stumbled upon the living arrangements of Cartwright, which show he has moved in to a Covent Garden redevelopment above the site of the historic Studio 51.

Real estate agent descriptions of the redevelopment describe it as the “gateway to living the London life”.

“Mix it up in Soho and Covent Garden, home to many of the Metropolis’s best cocktail bars, boutiques, galleries and restaurants, only minutes from the majority of London’s top theatres and the Royal Opera House,” one ad spruiked.

An email to Cartwright dated March 21 last year from a London agent who secured the accommodation revealed the rent amount when he asked the VIP tenant for a holding deposit — “this will be one week of rent 1050 pounds”.

In a separate email sent from Cartwright to Investment NSW bureaucrats two days later which discussed his living arrangements, Cartwright described the accommodation as a “small 2br apartment” on a “modest rent”.

However, he noted how it was modest “compared to everyone else here”.

“ … the AG for Vic has a 3br apartment in Belgravia provided to him (which would rent for more than 8000 pounds per month), a car and school fees x 2 at Dulwich College (6000 pounds per month combined) …,” he wrote.

Cartwright, who The Sauce recently revealed is on a WhatsApp chat group with three other Australian trade commissioners called “the 4 Amigos”, has been in the spotlight over his salary negotiations, especially when he declared he would struggle to afford to live in London unless taxpayers helped pay his rent.

Defending his request, Cartwright told the inquiry how he was “horrified” at discovering the cost of living upon arriving in London, including the “outrageous” rents.

DUMMY SPIT OVER TARONGA PRESS CONFERENCE

With a NSW election less than four months away, ministerial staff are sparring with each other as they fight to get their bosses maximum media coverage.

Not only are staff arguing about the order their boss’s appear on media releases, fights are also occurring about who should be doing the announcing.

The latest blow-up occurred this week when staff in the office of Environment Minister James Griffin learned of a press conference being organised by Deputy Premier (DP) Paul Toole and Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders at Taronga Zoo.

Griffin’s staff learned that their boss was not being invited to the announcement, despite the Zoo falling within the “environment” portfolio.

The discovery triggered a dummy spit by a senior Griffin staffer, who fired off a terse email — obtained by The Sauce — Toole and Saunders’ offices, which demanded to know why her Minister was being snubbed.

“As you would know, Taronga sits within Minister Griffin’s portfolio,” the staffer lectured.

“I have just been informed by our agency, Taronga, that the DP and Min Saunders are doing a presser onsite at the Zoo on Monday.

“We haven’t heard anything from either (Deputy Premier’s Office) or Min Saunders teams. What’s the plan? It’s our agency, in our portfolio, so we need to be informed, consulted with, and courtesy would be to invite the Minister actually responsible for that agency.”

The lecture ended with the staffer asking what would happen if the same had happened in reverse: “Can you imagine if we planned a presser at one of your portfolio’s key locations and didn’t tell you?”

ENVIRONMENT DEBATE HEATS UP

The temperature in Cabinet on Monday is expected to rise when NSW ministers gather to discuss climate change policy.

The Sauce was told topic has been listed on the agenda in response to the recent landmark NSW Land and Environment Court (LEC) ruling which ordered the State’s Environment and Protection Authority (EPA) to take specific steps to address climate change after the devastating Black Summer bushfires.

The ruling — which is believed to be the first time an Australian court has directed a government agency to take action to address climate change — followed the Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action group comprising victims impacted by the fires bringing proceedings in the LEC against the EPA.

The group alleged the EPA had failed its statutory duty to develop certain instruments to protect the environment from climate change.

In response to the Judgement, the EPA released in September this year a draft “climate change policy and action plan”, which included recommendations to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 (from 2005 levels), ensure net zero emissions by 2050, and improve resilience to climate change impacts.

A senior Liberal source said members of the Nationals were expected to be vocal when discussing the issue, especially if the discussion turns to native forestry.

COLLINS IS ALL CLASS

There was nothing discrete about the arrival of former NSW Liberal leader Peter Collins to the Gough Whitlam’s restored family home on Friday where celebrations were underway to mark the 50th anniversary of the election of the Whitlam government.

A Mustang GT owned by former premier Peter Collins.

Peter Collins launching his book The Bear Pitt in State Parliament House in 2000.

Collins — despite being a conservative — is a member of the Whitlam Institute Board.

Attendees claim they saw Collins step out of a bright red Mustang with the number plate “PONY 3” upon arriving at the Cabramatta residence.

When The Sauce tried to confirm it was Collins’ car, one Liberal claimed he drove a “Gun Metal Grey Jaguar X-type”.

However, he admitted “that was a year ago”.

Either way, it seems life post politics is not too shabby.

GOT SOME SAUCE? CONTACT [e-mail]