Coalition to launch an all-out blitz on teal seats

Peter Dutton will launch an all-out assault to wrestle back seats lost to the teals and edge the Coalition closer to winning government.

NSW teal MP Zali Steggall. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Peter Dutton will launch an all-out assault to wrestle back seats lost to the teals and edge the ­Coalition closer to winning government, with the Liberal Party bringing forward preselections, ramping up fundraisers and ­attacking Climate 200-backed independents.

The Australian can reveal ­opposition frontbenchers are preparing blitzes of teal-held seats in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, with Kooyong and Curtin emerging as the top targets for the Liberal Party.

With Amelia Hamer, Tom White, Ro Knox and Tim Wilson already locked in for Kooyong, Curtin, Wentworth and Goldstein respectively, the NSW Liberal Party on Wednesday opened nominations for the northern Sydney seats of Mackellar and Warringah.

Nominations for the Labor-held central coast seat of Robertson close at 5pm on Thursday.

While winning Allegra Spender’s seat of Wentworth in ­Sydney’s east is considered ­unlikely, senior Liberal Party strategists have not given up on reclaiming historic blue-ribbon territory. If former NSW planning minister Rob Stokes or another high-profile candidate nominates for Mackellar, Liberal strategists are hopeful of ousting Sophie Scamps.

Senior opposition sources said there had been strong fundraising and volunteer support for Ms Hamer and Mr White, who are running in Monique Ryan’s inner-Melbourne seat of Kooyong, which she took from former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, and Kate Chaney’s Perth seat of Curtin.

Amid tensions among teals on key issues and recent attacks ­targeting Mr Dutton, Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley attacked the independents for “betraying” their traditionally conservative electorates and teaming up with Labor and the Greens.

Ms Ley, the most senior woman in the Coalition who has visited the six key teal seats 31 times since the 2022 election, will travel to Kooyong next week and make her ninth visit to the Perth seat of Curtin.

Following recent scandals, the federal Liberal executive is increasingly likely to take control of preselections in NSW ahead of the election.

Amid expectations of a hung parliament following the next election and the Coalition needing to win back a swath of seats, Ms Ley accused the teals of becoming the “official opposition to the opposition” and having no right to “critique” parliamentary standards.

“It is clear we now have an official opposition to the opposition. This is a betrayal of the communities the teals were elected to represent – they promised their communities they would fight for them and their local issues, but instead all these communities have seen is an unhealthy teal ­obsession with Peter Dutton and the Coalition,” Ms Ley told The Australian.

“These members have enabled Labor and the Greens to evade scrutiny, reduce transparency and get away with policy decisions that specifically disadvantage Australians living in teal-held seats.

“By regularly giving Labor and the Greens cover in the parliament and in the media, the teals have clearly decided their pathway to re-election isn’t by holding this bad Labor government to account but by launching slurs at us.”

After a group of teal independents attacked Mr Dutton for what they claimed was poor parliamentary standards, Ms Ley said “the reality is that the House of Representatives is a robust chamber, a unique workplace, where MPs are sent here to fiercely advocate for their communities”.

“The fact is that the teals have not lived up to the tests they have set on ‘parliamentary standards’ in their comments about Peter Dutton and that is not good enough. Until they do that, I find it hard to accept their critique of the parliament.”

The attack on the teals came as the government introduced legislation establishing a new Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission – a watchdog recommended in the review into parliamentary workplaces conducted by then sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher told ABC radio the IPSC was a “significant structural reform” that would help to “change the culture in this workplace”.

The IPSC would be led by a “chair commissioner” who would be supported by between six to eight other commissioners.

All would be appointed on a part-time basis, with their pay set by the remuneration tribunal.

Current or former MPs, staffers, journalists, lobbyists, cafe workers, volunteers or interns employed within a commonwealth parliamentary workplace could be subject to allegations lodged with the IPSC.

If an allegation related to a current parliamentarian, the investigating commissioner could refer a finding of a serious breach to the Privileges Committee, which could recommend a fine of 2-5 per cent of an MP’s annual base salary, a discharge from a parliamentary committee position and a suspension from the parliament.

Teal MP Zali Steggall on Wednesday expressed concern the IPSC would investigate only allegations of conduct that did not form part of the proceedings in parliament.

She said she and many of her colleagues had experienced “heckling, bullying, shouting (and) intimidation” in the ­chamber.