Fresh twist in horror council bungle as ‘Angry 7’ turn up the heat on ‘Teflon Don’

Seven Liberal Party state executive members have banded together to demand further answers from embattled party president Don Harwin amid looming federal intervention.

Seven Liberal Party state executive members have banded together to demand further answers from embattled party president Don Harwin amid looming federal intervention.

In an email sent yesterday, the seven questioned him about the decision to seek legal advice on taking action against the NSW Electoral Commission after the nomination deadline was missed.

The move comes as hundreds of leaked messages from a NSW Liberal Party state executive WhatsApp group reveal just how central Mr Harwin was in the process, with the moderate powerbroker providing frequent updates to the group, including when some members expressed frustration at delays.

Leaked to The Saturday Telegraph, the messages also show just how unaware state executive members were that the deadline for nominations would be missed, with several cracking jokes about actor Tom Hanks the night before the cut-off date.

Messages that show the state executive making jokes about actor Tom Hanks, pictured with Rita Wilson at the Cannes film festival, shows how unaware they were about the NSW council election debacle. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images.

In the bloodletting that has followed, seven furious state executive members fired off an email to Mr Harwin and the interim acting state director Wilson Chessell on Friday about the alleged expenditure of party funds for legal advice.

The email was signed by Geoffrey Pearson, Peter O’Hanlon, Wendy Lindsay, Naji Peter Najjar, Isabella Anderson, Blake Keating and Rosina Gordon. The members asked eight questions, including how much the party had spent, what the legal advice was, why the state executive was not consulted and who authorised the expenditure.

The email also noted how questions regarding the legal action sent on Wednesday had not yet been answered.

Embattled NSW Liberal Party president Don Harwin and state executive member Wendy Lindsay, one of the ‘Angry 7’.

“We also note that on Radio 2GB on Thursday, August 22 it has been claimed that legal costs incurred by the division in this regard are close to $100,000,” the email read.

“Who authorised the expenditure on obtaining this legal advice? Was it the interim acting state director, the state president, Bunori Pty Ltd, or Liberal Asset Management (Custodians) Limited? Who authorised a public statement that was made regarding potential legal action to the media, which implied that the entire state executive was in support of such action? And why was the state executive not consulted before decisions were made to engage legal counsel and incur these costs?”

As of yesterday, it is understood the group had not received a reply while Mr Harwin did not respond to The Saturday Telegraph.

Two of the signatories of the email were among the executive members expressing their anger on the WhatsApp group about the bungled lodgement of the nomination forms.

“A number of members of (the) state executive are responsible for this fiasco – You know who you are. You need to resign immediately,” Mr Najjar wrote. Others – such as Mr Pearson – questioned the merits of legal action.

Brian Loughnane, pictured with Peta Credlin, will review the candidate fiasco debacle. Picture Gary Ramage

“What grounds could we have to justify an injunction when we had four years notice of todays deadline?” he wrote.

The email to Mr Harwin and Mr Chessell comes amid the increasing likelihood of federal intervention, with a federal Liberal source declaring how “patience” with the war-torn NSW division was “running out”.

However, the source said the party’s federal executive would await the outcome of the Brian Loughnane review into the debacle before deciding on what action to take.

“Patience is running out,” the source said. “There is a low level of tolerance for an underperforming NSW division.”

Mr Loughnane, who is a former federal Liberal director and the husband of Peta Credlin, has been given the job of investigating the nomination failure.

His report will be released on September 2 – the day before a meeting of the federal executive, where members will decide on whether a division takeover is warranted.

State opposition leader Mark Speakman has stood by Mr Harwin, despite ongoing anger among Liberals.

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