NSW Liberal Party reveals Tony Abbott’s preselection vote

THE Liberal Party has released the vote count for Tony Abbott’s preselection in Warringah, amid reports of a mutiny against the MP.

THE Liberal Party has revealed the exact vote count at Tony Abbott’s preselection meeting after pressure for the result to be made public.

There were reports up to 38 votes went against Mr Abbott on Friday’s meeting and nine may have been informal but the NSW Liberal Party has confirmed only 30 voted against Mr Abbott and there were two informal votes.

The total vote count was also very different to the one reported. It was suggested only 46 voted for Mr Abbott, less than half of total vote of 93 people, according to Fairfax.

But the Liberal Party has confirmed 68 people voted for him and 100 people voted in total.

Speculation about the protest vote and the growth of Young Liberals branches sparked suggestions yesterday that Mr Abbott could be toppled in future votes.

“There was such a high protest vote that people now think Tony will lose the general election in Warringah. This shows that it is Tony’s last term. People are very upset with the leadership spill,” one source told The Australian.

The Liberal Party refused to release details of the vote for three days, although Mr Abbott had estimated his support at “roughly 70 per cent of the vote”.

Asked about reports that Mr Abbott got less than 50 per cent of the vote, Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen, who was at the preselection meeting, told news.com.au yesterday: “I can confirm they are certainly not the numbers”.

According to Fairfax there was anger at the preselection meeting on Friday that the numbers were not announced to members.

Federal Liberal Party president Nick Greiner said there was no reason why Mr Abbott’s preselection endorsement numbers should not be revealed despite it currently being under wraps.

“I can’t particularly see why they shouldn’t announce the result in any preselection,” he told ABC TV on Sunday night.

Mr Greiner said as the party had announced the result in Wentworth — in former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s old seat — the same should apply to the Sydney electorate of Warringah.

Mr Abbott reportedly faced a heated preselection meeting on Friday.

“There are clearly very strong, different views about Tony — his views, the way he has behaved since he was defeated by Mr Turnbull,” Mr Greiner said.

Yet Mr Greiner admitted it was technically a matter for the NSW Liberals. Federal Labor president Wayne Swan said there were also concerns last federal election about whether Mr Abbott could retain the seat.

Tony Abbott at the Lowy Institute dinner at Sydney Town Hall last week. Pic: Jane Dempster/The Australian

“I am sure there are Liberals on the ground who are concerned … about his behaviour, and … about whether they can hold the seat,” he told ABC TV.

There are reports the meeting on Friday descended into farce after the secret ballot when officials reportedly refused to reveal the detailed vote count.

“Everybody with any degree of commitment to the party and its long term future wants to see this guy go. He’s just useless,” one local member told Fairfax.

After the vote Mr Abbott reportedly told those who did not support him that he would continue to be their member.

Opponents of Mr Abbott were reportedly considering challenging the result.

Mr Abbott has held the seat, representing Sydney’s northern beaches, for 25 years. There was no serious expectation of him being challenged, and indeed, he ran unopposed.

It came exactly three years after Mr Abbott was removed from the Liberal leadership, and famously promised there would be “no wrecking, no sniping, no undermining”.

Mr Abbott isn’t planning to go anywhere. After the most recent leadership spill, which saw Malcolm Turnbull replaced by Scott Morrison, he responded to calls from backbench colleagues to retire by saying he had “plenty of public life left in me”.

In an interview on 2GB, Mr Abbott told Alan Jones that he thought Scott Morrison had “got off to a very good start”.

“After a very difficult period with quite a lot of self-inflicted wounds, we are now again on the right track,” he said.

The other big preselection news of the week came from Wentworth, where former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma won a hotly contested vote to become the Liberals’ candidate.

But he will face a dangerous challenge from independent Kerryn Phelps, a well known local GP and Sydney City councillor who once served as head of the Australian Medical Association.

Defeat in Wentworth would rob the government of its majority, though at a press conference in Sydney this morning, Dr Phelps said she would not try to bring it down.

“My intention is not to block supply,” she said.

“I’m not here as a destabilising influence, I’m here to bring integrity and stability.”

Dr Phelps took a pre-emptive shot at Mr Sharma.

“It beggars belief that the Liberal Party was not able to find a suitable candidate from within the electorate of Wentworth,” she said.

“I’ve been a member of this local community for almost 20 years.

“This is going to be grassroots campaign. This is not a billionaires’ club. This is about the people of Wentworth.”

Dr Kerryn Phelps and her partner Jackie Stricker-Phelps. Pic: Kym Smith

Strikingly, given the current debate about gender inside the Liberal Party, Dr Phelps appeared at her press conference flanked by a large group of female supporters.

She said “there is something wrong with the Liberal Party” when only a fifth of its parliamentarians are women.

“They need to address that.”

She cited the removal of Malcolm Turnbull as the latest example of a “revolving door of leadership in Canberra” which has angered Australians.

“The current prime minister has given us no explanation as to why the previous local member, Malcolm Turnbull, is no longer the local member,” Dr Phelps said.

“Many Australians have been frustrated and angry about what happens in federal Parliament, about what happened to Malcolm Turnbull.”