NSW Liberals forced into 10-month federal takeover after council chaos
The embattled NSW Liberals will be forced into a 10-month takeover and its state executive, including president Don Harwin, sacked after a damning report after the party’s council elections nominations debacle.
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The embattled NSW Liberals will be forced into a 10-month takeover and its state executive, including president Don Harwin, sacked after a damning report on the party’s council elections nominations debacle.
“Three prominent Australians” forming a committee of management will be imposed on the division for 10 months, which would encompass the next federal election and campaign. It is the second time in little over two years the NSW Liberals been subjected to a federal takeover after prime minister Scott Morrison organised a one-week three-person committee to appoint candidates in key seats ahead of the 2022 federal election.
The three people recommended by the federal party executive, which rubber-stamped the takeover request at a Tuesday afternoon meeting, are former NSW minister Rob Stokes, former party president Alan Stockdale and former Victorian senator Richard Alston.
One NSW Liberal source labelled the Victorian-heavy panel “pale, male and stale”.
However, in an apparent mix up from the federal side, Mr Stokes told The Australian he was not aware of the appointment and couldn’t accept the role.
The former NSW MP, who is currently overseas, said: “I’m always happy to help and honoured to be picked, but have to politely decline.”
The drastic action was prompted after more than 140 candidates were left off ballots for September’s NSW local elections after a party headquarters bungle, with the fallout already claiming the scalp of ex-director Richard Shields and now that of Mr Harwin. It plunged the state party into weeks of chaos, and former federal director Brian Loughnane was tasked with a review, and he handed a “damning” report to the federal executive on Tuesday.
The Australian understands he found the NSW division ill-prepared to campaign for the next national poll and identified “serious failings”. Chris Stone, state party director before Mr Shields, has been drafted back in an interim capacity.
The move, which the NSW Liberals have until next Thursday to comply with, was deemed necessary by the federal party to ensure the embattled state party was “match-fit and campaign-ready”, one senior source said.
On Tuesday, federal director Andrew Hirst wrote to Mr Harwin regarding the takeover, citing a “lack of progress and insufficient resources” to fight the next election.
“There (has been) a failure to appoint a suitably experienced and qualified state director in which the federal executive has confidence, including their ability to prepare for the upcoming federal election,” Mr Hirst wrote.
NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman welcomed the return of Mr Stone and “looked forward” to discussing the exact makeup of the proposed three-person committee.
He called Mr Stone a “seasoned administrator” and “exactly what the party needed to navigate the challenges ahead”.
“I look forward to discussions about the precise composition of any committee,” Mr Speakman said, and urged the inclusion of an “experienced female”.
The federal executive said it had serious doubts about the NSW division’s “preparedness” to fight the upcoming federal election. “We owe it to our thousands of members in the state to address the challenges within the organisational wing of the NSW division,” it said.
“More importantly, we owe it to the millions of Australians who are relying on the Liberal Party to return Australia to good government after the next election to get our house in order.”
Mr Harwin did not respond to calls on Tuesday night.
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