Andrew Constance craving echoes Warren Mundine blue

High-profile former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance could face a challenging preselection contest in the NSW seat of Gilmore after he quit state parliament.

Andrew Constance after announcing his resignation. Picture: Martin Rainer Helmreich

High-profile former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance could face a challenging preselection contest in the NSW seat of Gilmore after he quit state parliament to take a tilt at federal politics ahead of the 2022 election.

Mr Constance announced on Sunday he would resign as Transport Minister this week and end his role as the member for Bega “by the end of this year” to run in the south coast seat.

But contenders are already ­beginning to emerge, with ­the Liberal Party’s local electorate conference president Paul Ell expected to run against Mr Constance for the lower house spot. Supporters of Mr Ell say he has the overwhelming support of local branches.

It is the second time Mr Constance has announced his intention to run for federal parliament. Last year, he said he would run for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro before pulling out after a spat with Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

Despite Mr Constance garnering the support of Scott Morrison on Sunday, one senior NSW ­Liberal figure said it would be a “disaster” if the Prime Minister ­intervened in the electorate, add­ing a significant number of branch members had declined to work on polling booths after the party parachuted Warren Mundine into the seat at the last election.

“We had to bring in people from (the electorates of) Cook and Cunningham and Hughes,” the senior Liberal said.

Held by Labor’s Fiona Phillips on a razor-thin margin of 2.6 per cent, Gilmore covers a large chunk of the state seat of Bega, including the Shoalhaven and south coast centres of Nowra-Bomaderry, Kiama and Milton-Ulladulla. The seat was contested for the Liberals in 2019 by Mr Mundine.

Mr Constance told Sky News on Monday it was his “burning ­desire” to continue fighting for his electorate and he hoped Gladys Berejiklian would follow him to Canberra. “This is my time to leave state parliament, and I’ve still got a burning desire within me and there’s a lot of things I want to get done out there,” he said.

Mr Ell declined to comment.

While any outcome from the corruption watchdog’s public hearings is likely to be years away, Mr Constance backed Ms Berejiklian to make a successful transition to federal politics if she is eventually cleared.

Despite reports Ms Berejiklian had been approached by senior Liberals to run in federal seat of Warringah, sources said it would be highly unlikely the ex-premier would be cleared by ICAC before nominations for the northern Sydney seat closed on October 15.

There was much speculation over hotly contested Gilmore at the weekend when it was absent from a list of other seats, including Warringah, Greenway, Eden-­Monaro, Parramatta and Werriwa, opened for preselection on Friday.

Nominations for Gilmore, the only non-Victorian seat Labor took off the ­Coalition at the 2019 federal poll, begin on November 1 and close on November 19.