Federal chances for Liberals now under threat

NSW Liberal state director Richard Shields. Picture: John Appleyard

For Peter Dutton as federal ­Liberal leader facing an election by mid-May next year, the ­simple reality is that the ­bungled NSW Liberal Party ­nominations for local council elections next month don’t have an immediate electoral effect on him.

Indeed, given that local council elections are the source of more trouble and infighting for the major political parties than any other tier of government it could even be a relief.

But the far more serious ­implications for the Opposition Leader already urging his troops to be on a war footing, is a ­demonstration of the weakness and ineptitude of Liberal state branches.

Unlike the ALP, the Liberal Party’s organisation is state-based and its federal powers are limited.

What’s worse for the Liberals is that damaging factionalism and power plays – often over trifling and trivial matters expressed at local levels – paralyse and disable essential electoral processes which can have devastating impacts on federal election outcomes.

It’s not just NSW, but NSW is one of the worst for infighting without regard to the greater ­Liberal good.

State Liberal branches have missed submission deadlines for federal electoral redistributions, at the last election federal candidates were still not preselected only weeks out from the campaign beginning, and executive bodies were rendered ineffective by power plays.

In the latest organisational failure NSW Liberal state director Richard Shields, himself a local councillor, told the state executive that with the “secretariat resources that we had available we were unable to nominate in all areas”.

In what has become an ­unedifying public war of words, Shields is now blaming state ­Liberal Party president Don Harwin, saying the former upper house MP volunteered to look after the local election preparations, while he focused on the federal election.

Harwin returned fire late last night, declaring Shields’s statement was false.

This is yet another sign that Dutton’s federal ambitions in the state that will ultimately decide the next federal election are under threat – not because there won’t be a Liberal candidate at a few council elections, but as a result of ongoing failure and fighting only months from the calling of a federal election.