Top Libs say factions create too much friction in the NSW Liberal Party

An administrative committee set up to examine issues within the NSW Liberals after the party failed to nominate candidates at last year’s council elections says factions are to blame.

The NSW Liberals must stop the “abuse” of factional power that is losing the party donations, members and elections, NSW Liberal bosses have declared.

In an excoriating “consultation paper” on party reform circulated among powerbrokers on Friday night, the three-person committee appointed to oversee the NSW Liberal Party said the party’s constitution must be reformed to stop the blood feud between warring factions.

The document, leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, declared that factionalism in the NSW division was an “existential threat” to the party and that: “We have failed in our core function of winning elections.”

It said that the party’s factions were blatantly “branch stacking” to get more numbers for internal party votes, while preventing the party from running strong campaigns.

“Factionalism is having an adverse impact on the successful delivery of strong campaigns, and the opportunity to attract the best candidates,” it said.

The Left faction’s Matt Kean (l to r), Alex Hawke from the Centre-Right and Angus Taylor from the Right.

The consultation paper recommends sweeping changes to the NSW Liberal Party constitution to gut the ability of factional powerbrokers to override rank-and-file members.

Recent factional powerbrokers include Angus Taylor from the Right, Alex Hawke from the Centre-Right, and Matt Kean and Don Harwin from the Left.

Former Premier Dominic Perrottet’s brother Charles was also previously a major player on the Right but is no longer involved in the party.

Under the proposed changes, the State Director would get the power to approve or reject new members, preventing individual branches from blocking membership requests along factional lines.

It would slash the number of state executive positions, and curtail the state executive’s power, by restricting the power of party bosses to “parachute” candidates into local seats.

The NSW Liberal State Executive has been plagued by fights between the party’s three factions, which have prevented candidates being endorsed, halted constitutional reform, and left the division racked in a perpetual state of civil war.

The consultation paper was prepared by the three-person administrative committee – Victorians Richard Alston and Alan Stockdale, and NSW member Peta Seaton – appointed by the federal Liberal Party after the NSW division failed to nominate scores of candidates for the local government elections last year.

The panel has been consulting with members on possible reform, saying: “Members’ submissions had many shared themes but, almost without exception, they supported reform and pointed to countering abuse of factional power.”

The consultation paper has received mixed reviews, with right wing faction members welcoming its findings and calls for reform, however members of the dominant Left faction were less impressed, calling it a “whinge” at checks against “industrialised branch stacking”.

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