Liberal state executive sacked in federal takeover

Don Harwin and the entire state executive of the NSW Liberal Party have been sacked in an extraordinary move by federal Liberal bosses to clean up a state division in meltdown.

Don Harwin and the entire state executive of the NSW Liberal Party have been sacked in an extraordinary move by federal Liberal bosses to clean up a state division in meltdown.

However just hours after the NSW Division was ordered to put a three-person “committee” in charge for 10 months following a series of failures, one of the hand-picked candidates declared they were not interested.

Former Minister Rob Stokes has declared he will not be on the new Liberal Party committee that has been set up to take over the NSW state executive.

The former planning minister has told The Daily Telegraph that he is “unable to accept” the role.

“While I’m always happy to help, this was not in a committee and I am not in a position to accept,” he said.

Don Harwin attends Sydney Parliament House for the Bicentennial Dinner last week. Picture Thomas Lisson

The Liberal’s Federal Executive had earlier demanded Mr Stokes run the NSW division until after the federal election, with former federal president Richard Alston, and former Victorian Minister Alan Stockdale.

The drastic move of sacking the state executive goes further than many in the state division were expecting, with the entire saga exposing deep factional rifts within the party.

The federal executive motion imposing intervention argued that the state executive was dysfunctional and that the state Liberals had not made enough progress in reform.

It said that the division had “insufficient resources” to run a federal campaign and had failed to appoint a suitable state director.

Liberal Leader Mark Speakman pictured at The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit in Orange. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Former state director Chris Stone has been drafted back into the role vacated when Richard Shields was sacked, after the NSW party failed to lodge some 140 council candidate nominations.

The NSW division has until next Thursday to replace the state executive with the three-person committee.

If it fails to do so, the intervention will be imposed.

In a statement, Liberal Leader Mark Speakman welcomed Mr Stone being returned as State Director, but said he wanted to add a woman to the committee which will run his party until July next year.

Richard Shields after previously being dismissed as the Liberal Party state director. Picture: Tom Parrish

“The proposed appointees have significant experience, but I would welcome the inclusion of an experienced female in this crucial role,” he said.

In a statement, the Liberal federal secretariat said that the party owes it to voters to “get our house in order”.

“We owe it to our thousands of members in the state to address the challenges within the organisational wing of the NSW division,” the Liberal Federal Secretariat said in a statement.

“More importantly, we owe it to the millions of Australians who are relying on the Liberal Party to return Australia to good government after the next election to get our house in order”.

Many from the party’s right faction had been calling for Mr Harwin to go following the council candidate catastrophe. Some members of the right faction were also backing a full takeover.

Those from the moderate faction, however, were pushing for a more limited intervention from Canberra.

There are concerns among state MPs that the new management committee – dominated by Victorians – will ignore three by-elections to be held next month.

The Liberal Party still needs to preselect a candidate to run for Pittwater to replace former MP Rory Amon, who resigned after he was charged with child sex offences.

Mr Amon has denied wrongdoing and vowed to fight the charges in court.