Key Tony Abbott backer Phil Nicol quits Liberal Party after bid for council preselection is rejected
One of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s key supporters, Phil Nicol, has been refused the right to run as a candidate in the September 9 election because his application was 32 minutes late.
Manly
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A LIBERAL stalwart of the peninsula has quit the party in disgust after his bid to run for Northern Beaches Council was rejected by the party’s head office.
One of former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s key supporters, Phil Nicol, has been refused the right to run as a candidate in the September 9 election because his application was 32 minutes late.
Conservative Liberal sources have indicated the move was yet another attempt to undermine the hard right of the party.
Applications to run for preselection for the Northern Beaches Council had to be in by 5pm on Monday April 24, leading other Liberal Party members to conclude it was bad luck.
“Phil is not factional, he was an Abbott supporter, but the state director is strict on the rules. He was late — if they let him in it would have set a precedent,” one source said.
It follows a week of tumultuous leaks for the Liberal Party as factional tensions between conservative and moderates rise.
On Wednesday, reports stated Mr Abbott had vowed to stay in politics to help pick up the pieces “when” the man who deposed him as prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is gone.
Mr Abbott declined to comment on the factional tension but said: “I am really disappointed that Phil has resigned. I understand his reasons for doing so.
“Phil is a good friend and I look forward to spending time with him in the waves off North Steyne.”
But one source suggested Mr Nicol’s rejection was a bid to weaken Mr Abbott’s stance in Warringah ahead of preselection for the 2019 Federal Election.
Not only was Mr Nicol president of former premier Mike Baird’s branch in Manly, but also vice-president of Mr Abbott’s Warringah electoral conference.
Previously, Mr Abbott’s Warringah electoral conference president Walter Villatora was rolled by now-Manly MP James Griffin for preselection to claim Mike Baird’s vacant seat.
The source said Mr Griffin’s win in the Manly by-election meant moderate-aligned Liberals “own half of Tony Abbott’s branches (which vote for preselection of party candidates).
“Walter Villatora was just roadkill, a speedhump to get to Tony Abbott,” the source said.
In an email sent to local Liberal Party members — which was leaked to the Manly Daily — Mr Nicol wrote: “I am extremely upset by this rejection given the thousands of hours I have dedicated to the party over the last 12 years and believe that my incentive to work for the party has been irrevocably destroyed.
“I am submitting my resignation to the state director this morning and will henceforth not hold the position of president or state delegate of this fine (Manly) branch.”
Mr Nicol was seen as a frontrunner for preselection in Manly Ward.
“I would like to point out that my resignation from the party has nothing to do with vindictiveness,” he wrote.
“It has more to do with abject disappointment with an organisation that I had unfettered loyalty to.
“I did not see the values of loyalty and fairness given to me.”
Upon learning his email had been leaked to the Manly Daily, Mr Nicol said he did not believe it was a factional powerplay.
“I never would have brought this up. You have got the email and the reason I got back to you was on the basis I wanted you to be aware of the direct parameters of the whole deal,” he told the Manly Daily.
“I don’t want to dump on the Libs, it was a bureaucratic legal decision, it went against me and now I just feel empty. I don’t want to do it anymore.
“I am not factional and, in fact, that is the reason, with all due modesty, I believe I am well regarded because I don’t take sides.”
Mr Nicol said he had been late to submit his forms to the party because he was helping another member of the Liberal Party apply for preselection.
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