Former Premier Dominic Perrottet helps NSW Liberals and Nationals reach peace deal
He’s not going quietly. Mark Speakman cast doubt over Wes Fang’s Wagga Wagga connection. The sacked MLC dived into his old photo albums to prove the Libs leader wrong.
NSW
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Sacked Nationals MLC Wes Fang has accused NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman of being “out of touch” after the Liberal leader cast doubts over whether the MP lived in Wagga.
The NSW Liberal Party room met on Tuesday to discuss whether it should split from the Nationals after Mr Fang attacked Mr Speakman in a Facebook post for visiting Wagga without contacting him.
In the now deleted post, Mr Fang accused Mr Speakman of “slinking” into Wagga Wagga and “pretending like the Libs actually care about the Riverina”.
“Did he ask the ‘Coalition’ member who lives in Wagga Wagga and is apparently part of his ‘team’ to have an in-depth discussion of Wagga Wagga issues?”, Mr Fang wrote.
The post led to Mr Speakman “terminating” Mr Fang’s positions as shadow assistant minister for police, emergency services, regional NSW, agriculture and natural resources before calling a party room meeting on Tuesday.
Despite a joint statement issued after the meeting suggesting a truce, comments Mr Speakman made to reporters after it was issued have again inflamed tensions.
Defending his decision not to inform Mr Fang, Mr Speakman said: “He happens to be a National MP in the upper house. He claims to live there,” he said. “There’s no disrespect on my part not to tell him.”
Mr Fang said the comments showed Mr Speakman to be “out of touch”.
Not only was Mr Fang born in Wagga, he also went to school at the local Uranquinty Public School and later, Mount Austin High School.
After moving for work, Mr Fang moved back to the electorate in 2008 where he lives with his family.
“I’m not sure I can get much more Wagga,” he said.
Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said any suggestions Mr Fang wasn’t from Wagga were “unbelievable”.
“He’s 100 per cent from Wagga, he grew up there, he went to school there, he attended military training there, he lives there,” Mr Saunders said.
“Any claims that Wes isn’t from Wagga are unbelievable.”
Opposition leader claims victory
Earlier, Mr Speakman claimed victory in the spat which threatened to drive the Coalition apart, denying his temporarily-derailed attempt to sack Mr Fang has damaged his leadership.
Mr Speakman held a snap press conference after a Tuesday morning meeting between Liberal MPs which saw them endorse the Coalition partnership, in which he said Mr Fang had displayed “behaviour that was unacceptable and fell short of the standards that the public are entitled to expect”.
Mr Fang triggered the Coalition crisis after writing a critical social media post of Mr Speakman, who he had accused of “slinking” into Wagga Wagga without informing Mr Fang who lives there.
Mr Speakman claimed credit for repairing the relationship with the Nationals, whose leader Dugald Saunders publicly refuted Mr Speakman’s attempts to sack Mr Fang late last week.
Mr Speakman on Tuesday launched a broadside at Mr Fang and the Nationals, while he also rejected accusations that the peace deal over the weekend was brokered solely by former Premier Dominic Perrottet.
“I gave the National Party leader every opportunity to deal with Mr Fang. When those repeated opportunities weren’t taken up, I elected to exercise my prerogative as opposition leader and sack Mr Fang … I won’t tolerate bad behaviour for any of my team,” he said.
“This understanding that we’ve reached out was negotiated directly between Dugald Saunders and me, but obviously, a number of senior Liberals were concerned about the prospect of a difference of opinion on this and I had a number of senior Liberals making phone calls to Nationals, backing me in, identifying that sort of behaviour we saw was unacceptable.”
The press conference came after a joint statement between Mr Speakman and Mr Saunders confirmed Nationals MP Wes Fang would be sacked from his shadow assistant ministry jobs.
“Today as leaders of the NSW Liberals and Nationals we have reaffirmed our commitment to the Coalition partnership,” the statement said.
“The Hon Wes Fang MLC has been removed from his shadow assistant minister roles.
“Our focus is on the people of NSW. The Minns Labor Government’s financial mismanagement is hurting households and small businesses across NSW, with funding slashed for cost-of-living support, health, education, other frontline services and infrastructure.
Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said he believed as part of negotiations, Mr Speakman had agreed to discuss the creation of protocols as to the proper behaviour when MPs are visiting other areas.
He said there needed to be an agreement around looping in local MPs to regional visits, including upper House MPs like Wes Fang.
“There needs to be discussions around how people conduct themselves moving forward,” Mr Saunders said.
“It’s about recognising where people live and work, where their communities are.
“We have agreed to have that discussion.”
Mr Speakman maintained on Tuesday morning he was under no obligation to inform an upper house MP of his visit, with liberal sources saying they were happy with current protocols for visiting MPs.
“We tell our lower house colleagues when we’re visiting their electorates,” Mr Speakman said.
“Mr Fang is not the member for Wagga, he happens to be a Nationals MP in the upper house who claims to live there.
“There’s no disrespect on my part not to tell him.”
Mr Saunders said he was pleased that a way forward was found but confirmed Mr Speakman did not take his calls over the weekend until Sunday evening.
“I tried to talk to Mark several times across the weekend,” he said.
“We eventually did talk and we ended up today where we should have ended up several days ago,” he said.
Nationals MP Geoff Provest asked Mr Saunders to hold a party room meeting over the weekend, over concerns of a Coalition split but the Nationals leader refused.
Mr Saunders said he was surprised the spat ended with the threat of a Coalition split, saying Mr Speakman had never raised it with him when he spoke about the issue last week or on Sunday.
“I never though the discussions we were having were about a split,” he said.
PERROTTET PEACE DEAL
The crumbling relationship between the Nationals and Liberals was pulled back from the brink over the weekend following a flurry of urgent phone calls which saw the Nationals accept Mr Speakman’s push to sack Mr Fang.
The Telegraph understands former Premier Dominic Perrottet and Mr Saunders spoke over the weekend, with Nationals sources claiming Mr Speakman “ignored” Mr Saunders over the weekend.
Speaking with the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, former Premier Dominic Perrotet downplayed his role in preventing a split.
“Strong leadership saved the day from Dugald and Mark, “ he said
“I had a couple of conversations (in the past 48 hours), ultimately Mark and Dugald have sorted it out. This happens from time to time in politics, particularly in the Coalition but we are one happy family.”
The uneasy truce comes despite both sides claiming victory.
“This is Mark trying to save face after being embarrassed,” a senior Nationals source said.
Meanwhile, a senior Liberal source said: “We’re not going to tolerate that sort of undermining.”
Mr Fang will keep his position as deputy whip of the Upper House – a role which pays about $22,000. The shadow assistant ministry positions he will lose are unpaid positions.
It comes after senior Liberals warned NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman to “walk back” threats of scrapping the Coalition over the behaviour of a junior Nationals shadow minister.
Senior Liberal powerbroker Anthony Roberts had urged both his own party’s leadership and the Nationals to rethink threats to sever the Coalition, in a smack down on the tough talk threatening the parties’ agreement.
“You don’t blow up a Coalition agreement over something like this,” Mr Roberts, who holds the title of the father of the House as the longest-serving lower house MP, said.
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Originally published as Former Premier Dominic Perrottet helps NSW Liberals and Nationals reach peace deal
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