Peter Poulos porn scandal: Jacqui Munro to replace MP over Robyn Preston smear email

Liberal Women’s council president Jacqui Munro has been endorsed for the party’s upper house ticket to fill the vacancy created when MP Peter Poulos was dumped due to a porn scandal.

Liberal Women’s council president Jacqui Munro has been endorsed for the party’s upper house ticket to fill the vacancy created when MP Peter Poulos was dumped due to a porn scandal.

Ms Munro’s endorsement went down to the wire in a ballot of the party’s state executive, passing by just two votes.

Liberal sources said the ballot passed with 13 votes in favour, with nine against and two abstentions.

A cross factional war had been brewing before the ballot, with members of the party’s right wing faction trying to block Ms Munro.

Ms Munro, a former liberal candidate for the federal seat of Sydney, had copped criticism for working in councillor Kerryn Phelps’ office.

Jacqui Munro has been endorsed in a close ballot. Picture: Supplied

She was also sacked by former Premier Gladys Berejiklian for supporting the Keep Sydney Open campaign in 2016.

However, Treasurer and moderate powerbroker Matt Kean had strongly backed her candidacy to replace Mr Poulos, a fellow moderate.

Mr Poulos quit last week after revelations he shared explicit pictures of fellow MP Robyn Preston to another Liberal Party member.

The incident occurred five years ago when former Hills Shire councillor Robyn Preston was vying for the seat of Hawkesbury in a fiercely-contested preselection battle.

Peter Poulos has been replaced by Jacqui Munro. Picture: NCA Newswire /Gaye Gerard

During the contest, it emerged how Preston – a member of the conservative hard-right faction – had modelled as a Penthouse “pet” in the 1980swith explicit photographs from the modelling shoot leaked to media outlets.

Despite the smear campaign, Preston won her preselection.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed the incident after sighting an email from a “Peter John Poulos” sent to a fellow Liberal member in the lead-up to the preselection, with the subject heading “Treasurer’s Pet” and the message “Enjoy” and “please clean up pdf”.

The email included grainy images of Preston, which appeared to be copies of photographs taken from the magazine.Peter Poulos was not an MP at the time, but was working as a political staffer.

Robyn Preston is happy to move on. Picture: AAP Image

“Robyn Preston and I are great friends who have known and supported each other over many years,” Mr Poulos said in a statement.

“We shared a lighthearted conversation and reflected on this old story first reported way back in 2012.

“I reached out to Robyn and apologised. I made a regrettable mistake. She in turn has been gracious and was actually surprised that the story had resurfaced again.”

Ms Preston – who learned of the email after Poulos called her – said it was time to “move on”.

“Peter called me and I told him the same thing – time to move on,” she said, while noting how the pair had been “good mates for years”.

Poulos said he did not send the email to media outlets. When asked, he said: “No.”