NSW Liberals forced into 10-month federal takeover after council fiasco

The NSW Liberals will be forced into a federal takeover for 10 months from September 12, with all powers to be delegated to a committee of former Victorian senator Richard Alston, ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and former NSW minister Rob Stokes.

But in an embarrassing development for the party on Tuesday night, Stokes said he was not asked about the appointment and was unable to accept because of other commitments.

NSW Liberal Party president Don Harwin and sacked state director Richard Shields.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“I am always happy to help but I did not anticipate this appointment and I am not in a position to accept it,” Stokes said.

The party’s president, Don Harwin, will lose his position because of the federal intervention.

The decision follows a federal executive meeting on Tuesday afternoon, which considered a report from former federal party director Brian Loughnane into the NSW Liberals’ spectacular failure to nominate 140 candidates in 16 councils ahead of local government elections this month.

Former NSW state director Chris Stone has been drafted back to the party in a temporary role after his successor Richard Shields was sacked over the debacle. Harwin initially survived, heaping all the blame on Shields and threatening legal action against the NSW Electoral Commission.

Details of Loughnane’s report, presented to the federal executive, have not yet been released publicly, but it was commissioned to investigate the embarrassing administrative bungle.

The motion, drafted as a response to the Loughnane report, said a federal takeover was necessary because the current state of the party meant it would be unable to “contest or win government at the forthcoming federal election”.

It also said there had been a “failure to appoint a suitably experienced and qualified full-time state director with requisite institutional knowledge”.

A statement from NSW Liberal Leader Mark Speakman did not address the takeover, but instead praised the reappointment of Stone.

“This is an outcome I have been working to achieve, including through extensive conversations with Chris since the recent termination of the previous state director,” Speakman said.

Former NSW minister Rob Stokes.Credit: Brook Mitchell

He also welcomed the “proposed appointees” of the committee but added “I would welcome the inclusion of an experienced female in this role”.

The federal takeover will cause huge unrest in the moderate faction, which is the largest grouping in NSW, with many seeing it as political opportunism from the right of the party.

A senior moderate Liberal said it “was an incredible takeover of the NSW division by Peter Dutton”.

“The NSW Liberal Party will now be run by two Victorians, with Rob Stokes added for window dressing. The message Peter Dutton has sent to the NSW Liberals that he wants the party run by a committee that is old, white and right,” the Liberal, who cannot speak publicly due to party rules, said.

Dutton’s office was contacted for comment. The new federal committee will also oversee three crucial byelections for the NSW Liberals, in Epping, Hornsby and Pittwater.

Pittwater was added to the byelection mix after former MP Rory Amon suddenly quit parliament on Friday just hours after he was charged with five counts of having sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 10 and 14. He also faces a further five charges, including of indecent assault. Amon has denied the allegations and has vowed to fight the charges.

The Northern Beaches’ sole Liberal MP James Griffin on Tuesday said the party must select a woman to contest Pittwater.

Liberal nominations for the seat opened on Saturday morning as the party faces a scramble to preselect a candidate to contest the October 19 byelection, which will be held alongside polls in Epping and Hornsby, prompted by the resignations of Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean.

The Northern Beaches deputy mayor Georgia Ryburn – who will lose her position on the council after the Liberals’ spectacular council nominations fiasco – and ANZ corporate governance manager Claire Longley have both nominated for preselection.

Pittwater preselection candidates Georgia Ryburn and Claire Longley.

Northern Beaches councillor Michael Gencher, who will also be kicked off the council after the September 14 elections, has also nominated.

Griffin said it was critical for the party to run a woman in Pittwater. The frontbencher is backing Ryburn, who also has the support of Stokes.

“I have worked alongside Georgia in her capacity as deputy mayor and saw her great ability to strongly advocate for people across the Northern Beaches,” Griffin said.

“She would be a strong voice for Pittwater.”

Longley, whose father Jim was the MP for Pittwater for a decade until 1996, missed out on running for preselection ahead of the 2023 elections because her party membership lapsed.

Amon was ultimately preselected despite some senior members of the then-Perrottet government urging the state executive to not endorse his nomination.

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