Faction fight heats up in North Sydney

FRANTIC maneuverings are afoot in the NSW Liberal party as the dominant “moderate” faction faces the inevitability of losing power, writes Miranda Devine.

The Michael Photios faction thinks it’s locked in Ward for this Saturday’s preselection in North Sydney. (Pic: News Corp)

FRANTIC maneuverings are afoot in the NSW Liberal party as the dominant “moderate” faction, controlled by controversial lobbyist Michael Photios, faces the inevitability of losing power over preselections when democratic reforms known as the Rose Hill resolutions are instituted on December 9.

Grassroots members in July voted two to one to adopt a plan put forward by Jim Molan and Tony Abbott for a system of democratic plebiscites to choose Liberal candidates, instead of the opaque process controlled by Photios, which has provided NSW with such MPs as Felicity Wilson whose CV and residential history is being urgently sought by the Mosman branch.

The Photios faction is desperate to subvert the Rose Hill vote. But if they can’t block the reforms, they are determined to fast-track preselections to lock in their candidates and allow Photios to retain power over the NSW parliamentary party until the next state election in 2023.

First up is the NSW Upper House berth about to be conveniently vacated by faction stalwart Greg Pearce. Pearce is best known for being sacked as Finance Minister by then-Premier Barry O’Farrell in 2013 for failing to disclose a perceived conflict of interest over an appointment to the board of Sydney Water.

At the time, Pearce was also under fire for holding 10 meetings in 13 months with clients of Photios, whose partner at his PremierState lobbying firm, David Begg, was married to Pearce’s then-deputy chief of staff, Natalie Ward.

So, guess who Pearce has tipped to replace him, with the backing of the Photios faction? None other than Natalie Ward.

If there were any doubt of Ward’s links to Photios, a quick perusal of the ASIC database would show that she was a director and shareholder in the company, Stanley Begg P/L, that part-owns PremierState.

In fact, she only resigned as a director on August 2 this year, less than two weeks after the Rose Hill resolution was passed.

The Photios faction thinks it’s locked in Ward for this Saturday’s preselection in North Sydney, even though former Howard staffer and KPMG executive Rachel Merton is a far superior candidate, with a personal reference from John Howard describing her as the epitome of “the very active, committed Party member we so desperately need”.

But if the Liberal party were to fast-track such an obvious ally of Photios as Ward into the Upper House, it would send a terrible signal to the grassroots of the party that Premier Gladys Berejiklian does not care if her government is seen as a shoddy subsidiary of a lobbying firm.