The Sauce: Retiring MP David Elliott slams claims he is trying to ‘blow up’ the Liberals

David Elliott has hit back at claims he’s trying to ‘blow up’ the Liberals by retiring, pledging his loyalty to the party he has been a member of for 36 years.

Transport Minister David Elliott has hit back at the “factional hacks” accusing him of trying to blow up the Perrottet government, declaring it was not in his interests do so, while also describing the Premier as “a friend”.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last week that the centre-right faction MP was quitting state politics to avoid a preselection bloodbath in the now right faction-dominated seat of Castle Hill.

The seat had been held by the centre-right until two hard-right faction branches were moved in after a boundary redistribution.

Right-wing Liberals from the area say Elliott should be nominating for the seat of Kellyville, which is more aligned to his existing seat of Baulkham Hills — a move that Elliott may well have entertained except that he previously agreed to allow his factional stablemate Ray Williams to run there and said he wouldn’t “knife a mate” to save his career.

The Premier and many of his ministerial colleagues would like to see Elliott stay, with one describing him as the government’s best when it came to “retail politics”.

David Elliott and his wife Nicole relax at the Golden Eagle at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse on Saturday. Picture: Tim Hunter

However, the only pathway back for the veteran Liberal MP is if the party uses its special powers to install him as the candidate in the seat, or if frontrunner candidate Noel McCoy withdraws or fails to get through the mandatory nomination review committee process.

Should the latter occur, there are still several other candidates in the mix, with local businessman Rajiv Chaudhri among those who were expected to nominate.

The party would either have to scrap the process and reopen nominations for Elliott to run, or draw on its special powers to install him.

When asked about McCoy last week, Elliott described the pro-life former Young Liberal president as not having the requisite “character” for politics.

On Saturday, the political skirmish appeared to be far from Elliott’s mind as he enjoyed a day at the races with his wife Nicole, the pair spotted at the Golden Eagle in Rosehill.

Elliott says he refuses to ‘knife’ factional stablemate and mate Ray Williams. Picture: Damian Shaw

When The Sauce asked him about the ongoing turmoil over the seat of Castle Hill, Elliott said he had no interest in “blowing up” the party.

“It’s not in my interests to blow up an organisation that I’ve been a part of for 36 years,” he said. “I consider Dom to be a friend and I also don’t want to cause problems for my friends or colleagues — Natasha Maclaren-Jones, Scott Farlow, Mark Taylor, or Ray.”

Elliott, one of several ministers retiring at the March state election, is yet to learn if he will remain on the frontbench until then.

It is understood he has told the Premier he will happily accept whatever decision is made.

WHAT A GUY

When the students of Picton High School gathered for their regular assembly on Wednesday, little did they know what their local MP Nat Smith had in store.

Having been personally involved in dealing with the aftermath of the tragic Buxton crash — Smith attended all five funerals for the teens killed — the Wollondilly MP felt the school needed a break.

And having spent several weeks helping singer Guy Sebastian with the Sebastian Foundation the star set up with his wife, Jules, Smith had an idea.

Nat Smith, Guy Sebastian and Alister Henskens at Picton High School this week. Picture: Supplied

A covert operation ensued, with students not having any idea about what was to occur until school principal Warren Parkes told them he had a “surprise” and Sebastian walked out.

“There were screams, cheers, tears – the students had no idea,” Smith said.

The singer performed three songs, including his hit, Battle Scars.

Afterwards, Sebastian posed for photographs — including one with Smith and visiting Skills and Training Minister Alister Henskens — before taking part in a music workshop where students wrote a song for him.

And the singer did it all on his birthday.

Like we say, what a Guy.

SIDOTI QUITS THE LIBS

Drummoyne MP John Sidoti has torn up his Liberal Party membership.

In what comes as no surprise, the independent MP, who was suspended from state parliament after the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he had engaged in serious misconduct, handed in his resignation to the party office last week.

While no longer affiliated with a major party, the former minster, who declared he would fight the corruption watchdog’s findings in the NSW Supreme Court, is still intending to run at the upcoming state election.

John Sidoti driving away from the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption in April. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

He will be up against fierce competition, with a conga-line of candidates lining up to vie for preselection for both Labor and the Libs.

While Sidoti may no longer be a member of the party, local Liberals say his wife and sister remain involved with the party conference.

The seat is held by the Liberals with a 13.5 per cent margin against Labor.

There were rumours doing the rounds last week that Sidoti’s supporters still in the party would try to back in a “weak” Liberal candidate to give their MP the best chance at the polls.

Labor held its ballot for the seat on Saturday, with Canada Bay councillor Julia Little named as the party’s candidate. The Liberals are yet to close nominations.

JOB CHANGE

Premier Dominic Perrottet’s former head of strategy Ben Riley is moving on.

The Sauce hears the former Young LNP president is headed back to Queensland to become the new Liberal Party state director.

Taking over the job of providing strategic advice to Premier Perrottet in the lead-up to the March state election will be Scott Morrison’s chief political strategist Yaron Finkelstein and former Business NSW external affairs manager Julian Whealing.

Whealing had been tipped to throw his hat in the ring to nominate as a candidate for the seat of Castle Hill. We think he probably made the right career move.

RUBBISH MOVE

Ministerial office staff will no longer have the luxury of their own personal bin at their desk, with the state government downsizing its rubbish collection.

Instead, each office will have just the big red, yellow and blue bins for staff to get rid of their secret documents and lunch scraps.

The move is welcome news for ministerial staff, who have had to listen to the Premier’s chief-of-staff Bran Black deliver an update on the bin overhaul at every recent meeting.

“We called it Bin-gate,” a source said.

“The bin contractors wanted to charge for the collection of the smaller bins and so it was doing to cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.

“Removing the smaller bins also boosts our green star rating so we got rid of them this week.”

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