‘Farcical’ NSW Liberals in damage control amid federal takeover

Mark Speakman says he is yet to read a ‘damning’ report into the NSW Liberals as Peter Dutton criticises the ‘completely unacceptable’ functioning of the division amid a federal takeover.

NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman has denied the federal takeover of the state division was a lack of faith in him. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

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NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman has insisted that his party was not falling down a “stuff-up spiral” as Peter Dutton said a “council of wise elders” was needed amid the “completely unacceptable” functioning of the state division.

Mr Speakman said on Wednesday he had been left in the dark about the federal takeover and had not yet read a “damning” report into the state division, commissioned after the party’s council nominations debacle in August, adding that the move did not signify a lack of faith in his leadership.

But the takeover itself was marred, with one of the three “elders” on the federal-imposed management committee, former NSW planning minister Rob Stokes, ruling himself out of the role on Tuesday evening, saying he was unaware of the appointment and couldn’t accept it.

Speaking on Wednesday, the federal Opposition leader blamed the state party for that mix-up, saying intervention was necessary.

“NSW put forward Mr Stokes, his name, he wasn’t available as it turns out and that’s fine,” Mr Dutton said in Adelaide.

“Our party needs to be functional and the way that it was operating was completely unacceptable to me, and we took a decision at the federal executive to put in place a council of wise elders who will get the NSW division of the Liberal Party back on track because we can win the next federal election.”

Mr Speakman said on Wednesday he had spoken informally to Mr Stokes in recent days about a role, but that it hadn’t been formalised nor put to the former state minister.

“He didn’t know he (was to be) formally put up until a media announcement,” Mr Speakman said.

Speaking on Wednesday, Anthony Albanese described the party’s federal takeover as a “farce”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

“If the NSW leadership has been dismissed for incompetence, how about you dismiss the federal leadership of the Liberal Party, in the organisational sense, for incompetence — for appointing someone as an administrator who is not available and didn’t know anything about it,” the Prime Minister said.

The proposed three-person committee, which the NSW division has until next Thursday to comply with, will last for a period of ten months and include former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and former federal minister Richard Alston.

Both Mr Stockdale and Mr Alston had accepted and were committed to the roles and 10-month management task.

Mr Stokes’s replacement is unclear, although Mr Speakman suggested it should be a woman and that he remained in discussions with his federal counterparts.

Former state director Chris Stone has been drafted back in an interim capacity to replace the recently sacked Richard Shields, although Mr Speakman couldn’t confirm whether he, unlike Mr Stokes, had actually signed on the dotted line.

Embattled state president Don Harwin will be turfed out along with the entire NSW executive, at least for the 10-month intervention period, following the party’s failure to lodge council election nominations for about 140 candidates for September’s poll.

Former NSW planning minister Rob Stokes.

Mr Speakman said he had been left in the dark about the federal executive’s Tuesday takeover proposals and hadn’t yet read former party director Brian Loughnane’s critical report into the division, saying he was “not sure” he’d ever read it.

“It (a federal intervention) substitutes the state executive with a federal-appointed committee to exercise the powers that executive had,” Mr Speakman said.

“What is more important than the internal makeup of the Liberal (party) is making sure we’re beating these terrible state and federal Labor governments.”

Mr Speakman vowed that the state party’s “fundamentals” were “sound” and that the parliamentary team were united.

“Is the party in a ‘stuff-up spiral’? No, absolutely not,” he said, denying the intervention was a lack of faith in him, saying it was solely on ensuring “campaign readiness” for the federal election.

“With all due respect to the media, sometimes you get very excited about so-called ‘catastrophes’.”

Among the committee’s first tasks will be to prepare the party for three blue-ribbon state by-elections in October: Hornsby, Epping and Pittwater.

The latter was vacated by former Liberal MP Rory Amon, charged last month with child sex offences pertaining to alleged instances with a 13-year-old boy.

Mr Speakman said Mr Amon was afforded the presumption of innocence but, if found guilty, the alleged offences were “reprehensible”, and that while he’d welcome a female candidate it was up to branch preselectors.