Liberals believe they will lose Pittwater by-election triggered by child sex offence charges
An urgent preselection process is underway to get a candidate endorsed in Pittwater as early as next week.
NSW
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A Liberal candidate to replace former MP Rory Amon is set to be endorsed as early as next week, but party members believe they have no chance of winning the Pittwater by-election triggered when Mr Amon was charged with 10 child sexual assault offences.
An electronic ballot was issued on Sunday morning asking members of the state executive to “urgently adopt a truncated preselection” to endorse a candidate as soon as possible ahead of a probable October 19 poll.
There are now questions swirling in the party about whether Mr Amon knew he was under investigation at the time of the election in March 2023.
When running for preselection, Mr Amon would have been required to sign a statutory declaration declaring, to the best of his knowledge, he had “never been accused of any domestic or child abuse of any kind” or “accused of sexual or any other form of harassment or stalking.”
Liberal sources on Sunday declared the charges against the former MP have torpedo any chances of retaining the Northern Beaches electorate against a challenge from a teal independent.
“There is no way we’re going to win it,” one state executive source said.
“The seat is f***ed,” said another.
A third said that state executive “was very pessimistic” about the outcome during a Friday night meeting.
“I wouldn’t rate us as a big chance,” they said.
Mr Amon scraped to victory by just 606 votes at the 2023 election, against a challenge from “teal” candidate Jacqui Scruby.
Ms Scruby is considering running in the upcoming by-election.
Mr Amon quit the Liberal Party, and parliament, on Friday after he was charged with 10 child sexual assault offences, including five counts of having sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 10 and 14.
He was also charged with two counts of indecent assault of a child under 16, two counts of attempted sexual intercourse with child between the ages of 10 and 14, and with committing an act of indecency with a child under 16.
Mr Amon has denied the charges and vowed to fight them in court.
NSW Police began its investigation in June 2022, following reports of an alleged sexual assault in Mona Vale in July 2017.
Liberal Leader Mark Speakman asked former MP Rob Stokes to run, but Mr Stokes declined.
Mr Stokes is backing Northern Beaches Deputy Mayor Georgia Ryburn, whose bid to run for Mayor was quashed when the Liberal Party failed to lodge her nomination.
The Pittwater by-election caps off a horror month for the NSW Liberal Party, as the state division braces for a potential takeover by the federal executive.
Party elder Brian Loughnane will on Monday hand down a report into the council candidate debacle, ahead of a federal executive meeting on Tuesday.
Multiple Liberals – at a state and federal level – want Canberra to step in to take over from the dysfunctional Liberal branch.
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