A federal takeover of the NSW Liberal Party – in one form or another – is as inevitable as it is necessary.
The inevitability and necessity are not about the calamitous bungle in failing to nominate 140 Liberal candidates in 16 NSW local council elections and subsequent bloodletting in the senior ranks for the state executive but about the organisational failure that threatens any chance Peter Dutton has at a federal level.
NSW is the state that will decide the next election and, only eight months from when the next election must be called at the latest, the state Liberal branch is simply not fit for purpose.
Infighting, factional divisions and personal fights in the NSW branch, particularly over local councils which have been causing trouble since before then prime minister John Howard sent in Tony Staley as an administrator 25 years ago.
Tony Abbott as opposition leader fell agonisingly close in 2010 and Scott Morrison was substantially let down 2022 all because of organisational failures in the NSW branch.
As Liberal leader Dutton is determined not to be yet another federal leader who falls victim to the dysfunctional behaviour of the NSW branch.
Part of Dutton’s answer was to order a quick review of what has happened and to provide recommendations for a quick answer so that the key NSW branch is again fit for purpose.
We already know the review of the 2022 election found that the NSW branch “was not in an acceptable position to contest the election in some seats”.
There can be no greater condemnation of a political organisation that can’t even contest an election. The Liberal Party’s structures were found not to be “fit for purpose”.
What’s worse: “The Party did not present the candidate with the strongest possibility of winning a seat. This matter was a particular problem in NSW.”
The review of former Liberal federal director Brian Loughnane – who is conducting the current, urgent review that will report on September 2 – found: “Pre-selections were delayed because of factional and other disputes meaning candidates were unable to be introduced locally in sufficient time before the formal commencement of the campaign.”
As well: “Potentially attractive candidates also became discouraged from contesting preselection, narrowing the options available to the Party.
“Party members at all levels expressed concern at the behaviour of a small number of Party members, including some State Executive members, which falls below acceptable collegial and professional standards.”
The final recommendation was that the Liberal Party “ultimately at the Federal Executive level, must have the means to deal with recurrent behaviour below acceptable standards”.
And, two years later everything is worse.
There is no choice but for a federal takeover if the Liberal Party wants to have any chance of doing its best at the next election. The only question is how to do it without paralysing the branch with legal challenges, personnel fights and damaging splits.
Of course, in Victoria Anthony Albanese has simply ordered a federal intervention for preselections because of the timing of the redistributions in Labor’s strongest state. No drama.
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