Senior WA Liberals rail against president’s ‘candidate college’ plan

WA Liberal Party president Richard Wilson has copped a backlash from senior party members over a plan to introduce a “candidate college” in preparation for the 2025 state election.

The WA Liberal Party is suffering from ongoing tensions within the party.

The president of the WA Liberal Party has copped a backlash from senior party members over a plan to introduce a “candidate college” in preparation for the 2025 state election, in the latest sign of the ongoing tensions within the party.

Email correspondence leaked to The Australian shows a string of objections from the party’s divisional presidents over a decision by recently re-elected president Richard Wilson to call for hundreds of potential candidates.

Mr Wilson’s plan gave each division three weeks to compile the names of three potential candidates from within the party, plus three potential candidates who are not currently members, for every seat in the state. It also called on each division to present a draft strategy to fund the campaigns.

Party elder and former state MP Cheryl Edwardes sent an email saying she had “serious concerns” about the plan, including questioning the party’s “capacity to attract outside candidates at a time our brand is not attractive”.

She said the plan put the “cart before the horse with no clarity around the content and role of the college and how it intertwines with the constitution” and called for a special meeting of the party’s state executive to discuss the initiative. Her call was supported by several other members, with one of those – Tammy Fenwick – noting the party often struggled to find candidates for safe Labor seats.

“Some consultation would be appreciated since it is usually difficult to find one candidate for (WA premier Mark McGowan’s seat of) Rockingham and the three other seats in the electorate let alone investing the time and energy to find three names,” Ms Fenwick wrote.

The party’s campaign manager, Michelle Hofmann, said she had held “initial discussions” with the party’s state director and deputy state director but said she had ­“serious concerns around the proposed process and timing” outlined in the memo.

The plan appears to be modelled on the system used by the UK’s Conservative Party, which puts together fields of six for each seat. But that system was developed as a means of whittling down a large number of potential candidates, whereas the WA Liberal Party has often struggled to develop deep pools of candidates for some seats.

The original memo from Mr Wilson said the candidate college would help identify and train the next generation of Liberals for public office. The training plans would be detailed in Blueprint 2025, to be launched later this year.

Mr Wilson has since told the members he would pause the rollout of the plan given the “allergic” reaction from some. “I apologise, I thought the ­proposal was uncontroversial and therefore safe for wide consultation,” he wrote.

The tensions over the plans come just weeks after Mr Wilson succeeded in getting a major overhaul of some of the party’s preselection processes approved, 92 per cent voting in favour of a constitutional amendment introducing plebiscites for lower house seats.

That has not marked the end of factional tensions. The head of the party’s constitutional and drafting committee, Tim Houweling, recently put forward a motion to formally “caution” recently re-elected senator Dean Smith over comments he made about a presentation delivered by Ms Hofmann.

Both Mr Houweling and Ms Hofmann are seen as aligned with the conservative faction now known as The Clan, while Mr Smith has publicly called for broader reforms to reduce the influence of party powerbrokers.