NSW Liberals’ ‘women problem’ remains after three men dumped

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has moved to dump three senior male Liberal figures from the NSW Upper House in order to ­install women in the spots ahead of the March state election.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has moved to dump three senior male Liberal figures from the NSW Upper House in order to ­install women in the spots ahead of the March state election.

The move is a bid to head off mounting criticism of sexism ­within Liberal Party ranks and concern about the threat of teal ­independents at the election.

The Liberal MPs who have lost preselection are Legislative Council president Matthew Mason-Cox and backbenchers Lou Amato and Shayne Mallard.

On Thursday night, Liberal Party spin doctors were pushing the line that the party had struck a deal across all factions to get gender parity, with Finance Minister and head of the party’s Right faction Damien Tudehope claiming “a tremendous outcome”.

But there was considerable anger behind the scenes from some in the Right faction over what was seen as a power play by the conservative Premier and his moderate Treasurer, Matt Kean.

“This is happening because they don’t want to go to preselection because they won’t be able to get the outcomes they want,” one MP told The Australian.

“The moderates have had opportunities to put women in safe seats, but they’ve continually run males – it happened in Davidson, it happened in Ryde, it happened in Pittwater, it happened on the south coast – but they chose to go with males and now they’re saying, ‘Oh, this is outrageous, we need more women running’.”

Former high-ranking Liberal Matthew Camenzuli, who took ex-prime minister Scott Morrison to the High Court in a battle over preselections, said it was “another sad day” for the Liberal Party.

Mr Camenzuli was expelled from the party after he challenged the decision by Mr Morrison to use extraordinary federal intervention powers to protect three sitting MPs and parachute in another nine candidates across the state in the lead-up to the May 21 election.

He said history was repeating itself. “Under the guise of what looks like a good thing – putting more women into parliament – they are essentially ignoring the Brian Loughnane and Jane Hume report that just got handed down,” Mr Camenzuli said.

“They are thwarting democratic selections and disenfranchising members of the party from having a say in who represents them, which is what destroyed Scott Morrison at the federal election. It’s the same problem, the cancer still exists … it has spread, and it’s disgusting.”

Families Minister Natasha ­Maclaren-Jones will get top billing on the Upper House ticket, followed by state executive member Susan Carter and former schoolteacher Jean Haynes.

Ms Maclaren-Jones had hoped to run in the lower house seat of Pittwater, at risk from teal candidate Jacqui Scruby, but the party’s state executive endorsed Northern Beaches Council member Rory Amon to replace retiring minister Rob Stokes.

It is understood Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons will not get a spot after the shake-up, despite putting her Canberra ambitions on hold at the federal election, when Mr Perrottet promised her a cabinet spot so her safe state seat would not be at risk.

Mr Perrottet had previously downplayed the Liberals’ undecided preselections as an “inside baseball” diversion. But that changed earlier this week after Liberal figure and Parramatta hopeful Tanya Raffoul reported that she had been told by party members she should “settle down and have children” instead of running for parliament and she was “too assertive” to be an MP.

The treatment of Transport Minister David Elliott’s chief of staff was the latest in a string of allegations that party members consistently overlooked talented women for winnable seats.