The Sauce: Knives are out for ScoMo’s right-hand man Alex Hawke

Furious Liberals are sharpening their knives after the election debacle and they have only one person in their sights — the former PM’s right-hand man Alex Hawke.

Furious Liberals are sharpening their knives after the election “shit show” and they have only one person in their sights — Scott Morrison’s right-hand man Alex Hawke.

Hawke has been blamed for the preselection debacle in NSW, where candidates had to be installed at the last minute after his failure to turn up to mandatory vetting committee meetings.

It was alleged the centre-right factional leader had his own people in mind for seats and stopped at nothing to get his way.

Such was the delay in seats such as Warringah that the majority of the original interested candidates pulled out, leaving the party with two options — disability campaigner David Brady and biological sex campaigner Katherine Deves who, despite her highly controversial nomination form first obtained by The Sauce, somehow got the gig.

This column was inundated with messages from angry Liberals — largely but not exclusively from the left — after Hawke showed up to the first post-election meeting of the NSW state executive on Friday.

Scott Morrison and Alex Hawke before the election. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Flavio Brancaleone

However, we are told the former immigration minister barely spoke at the meeting, with much of the discussion by members being somewhat bizarrely focused on election posters.

“The fact he turned up is outrageous,” one left-wing Liberal messaged. “I can’t believe it.

“He’s the leader’s rep and the leader lost.”

But with Peter Dutton set to be the new Liberal leader, party sources say Hawke’s days on the executive are likely to be numbered.

The frontrunners to become the new federal leader’s representative on the powerful decision-making committee are Angus “Gus” Taylor, who would join NSW Multiculturalism Minister Mark Coure, who votes on behalf of Premier Dominic Perrottet, and Paul Fletcher.

The pair will have their work cut out ensuring the preselections are conducted early ahead of the March state election next year, but will also have to ensure that there are enough bodies on the ground to hand out how-to-votes on election day.

Former Liberal MP Peter Phelps’ offer to help on election day was not followed up.

The lack of volunteers last Saturday led to furious messages being exchanged among Liberals.

On Facebook, former Liberal MP Peter Phelps posted about wanting to volunteer for a booth, only to not be contacted to help at Queanbeyan.

“1500 voter booth in Queanbeyan. Two entrances. One Lib booth worker (me). Seven ALP booth workers. Said I wanted to do a booth – never contacted,” he wrote. “Just turned up and started to hand out.

“As our SEC (state executive council) president said – this is a shit-show.”

Another Liberal member replied: “You can only screw a large part of your support base over so many times before they stop turning up to help.”

Referring to the delayed preselections, Phelps said someone had called around branch members saying the key “nope factor” was the “ScoMo/Hawke shenanigans”.

Stay tuned.

BLOKEY AFFAIR

It was a very white, male and middle-aged affair when nominations to fill two positions on the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) membership advisory committee were called.

Of the 17 nominations that lobbed, The Sauce notes all were blokes — despite about one quarter of SCG members being women.

Ex-Wallaby Phil Waugh has nominated for a spot on the SCG membership advisory committee. Picture: Getty Images

The names that have been listed on the ballot form include former Wallaby Phil Waugh, media director Michael Bodey, James McNally, Adrian Churchill, Andrew Gooch, St Ignatius College Riverview maths teacher Christopher Wright, and Nathan McCullum.

Other candidates included Paul Tait, Test cricketer David Gilbert, Philip Raymont, Craig Meagher, Michael Chandler, Matthew Hourn, Christopher Witt, Timothy Findlay, John Flitcroft and William Ryan.

Interestingly, of the dozen or so member-elected trustees, not one has had a woman, so it is not like the advisory committee is breaking from tradition.

CAREER REBOOT

She was booted out of the Labor Party amid branch-stacking allegations, but controversial ex-politician Belinda Neal is hoping for a comeback.

The Sauce can reveal the “Iguanagate” former MP and wife of ex-Labor powerbroker John Della Bosca has lodged an application to rejoin the party.

Former Gosford MP Belinda Neale is eyeing a comeback.

Neal was expelled five years ago after an internal tribunal upheld charges brought under party rules that she had engaged in “unworthy conduct” in relation to a breach of party rules involving the Woy Woy branch.

Neale denied any wrongdoing and appealed the decision, claiming the complainant had been confused by the rules and processes of the ALP due to their complexity.

The expulsion ultimately ended an attempt by Neal to resume her political career, which came to a halt after the “Iguanagate” scandal in 2008.

Neale and Della Bosca, who became embroiled in an altercation with a staff member at the Iguana Joe’s bar, were ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.

As for whether the party will invite Neal back into the fold, that will be up to the ALP internal review tribunal whose members include Carmel Tebbutt, who is the ex-wife of new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, barrister and former deputy president of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission Dr Trish Kavanagh and Shane Prince SC.

FOWLER FALLOUT

The first rejected Labor candidate Kristina Keneally knew of how she was faring in her bid to become the member for Fowler was on election night.

The Sauce can reveal Labor did not conduct a poll in the seat during her campaign — but not because the party was confident of securing a victory over high-profile independent Dai Le.

Kristina Keneally had no advance warning about voters’ intentions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

A Labor source said the ethnically-diverse seat was extremely difficult to poll, with attempts at previous elections putting the party well behind rival candidates.

It is understood Parramatta was also difficult to poll, with three attempts made to gather a sample of 600.

Another seat difficult to poll was Werriwa, which is possibly why the Liberals thought they had a shot, sending a conga-line of VIPs from Tony Abbott to Angus Taylor in the belief the result would be on a knife’s edge.

As for what happens with Keneally, the source simply said: “She’s cooked. Done. That’s it. The vote was not just a vote for Dai Le, but a rejection of Kristina.

“I don’t think she can come back.”

TIE-BREAKER

It has been an excruciating wait for both former Berejiklian government minister Andrew Constance and Gilmore incumbent Fiona Phillips to learn who will take the prized south coast seat.

With the counting of thousands of postal votes not expected to be finalised until Friday, Constance suggested the pair fast-track matters with an old-fashioned game of “rock, paper, scissors”.

“I’ve offered it up to sort out who gets the keys to the office,” Constance told The Sauce from his armchair last week.

“Either that or we could have a game of air hockey,” he said, referring to a video of Phillips playing the game on her Facebook page.

As of yesterday, Constance held the two-party preferred lead with 52,277 votes to Phillips’ 52,030.

ELECTION HANGOVER

Back in the old days, the worst one would wake up with after an election night victory party was a hangover.

However, cut to 2022 and more than a few Labor types were this week nursing sore heads and throats for a different reason — Covid.

Anthony Albanese’s election-night celebration turned into a Covid super-spreader. Picture: Getty Images

In what appears to have become a superspreader event, Anthony Albanese’s election-night party has had more than a few casualties.

Among those struck down were NSW ALP general secretary Bob Nanva and his assistant secretary Dom Ofner.

While feeling poorly, neither were – of course – complaining.

DIRTY BUSINESS

Overheard in a parliamentary bar: Coalition staff discussing how former NSW Liberal pollie Peter Phelps would allegedly be convening a “how-to” session for ministerial staff on digging up dirt on political rivals.

Loved by journalists, political “dirt units” are unspoken-of operations which are usually formed in the lead-up to an election.

The units often work closely with journalists in feeding rumours and tips on rival candidates, thereby allowing the elected officials to keep their hands clean.

The Sauce reached out to Phelps for a comment.

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