The Federal Liberal Party has launched a takeover of operations of the party’s NSW arm.
It comes after the NSW Liberals failed to file essential paperwork on time, ahead of upcoming local council elections.
The error means at least 138 Liberal Party candidates won’t run in the elections.
The party’s national wing has now decided to take charge of the NSW Liberals for a period of 10 months. This includes leading decision-making and everyday processes.
Here’s what that means.
Background
On 14 September, NSW will hold local council elections. The major parties put forward candidates in most local government areas around the state.
The NSW Electoral Commission (NSWEC) oversees the state’s elections. It set a deadline for nominating candidates: 12pm, Wednesday 14 August. After that point, no new candidates could register to appear on the ballot.
The Liberal Party missed this deadline to nominate candidates for some local elections around the state.
The error was blamed on the party’s state director Richard Shields, who was fired from his role last month.
In the aftermath, senior Liberal figure Don Harwin asked the NSWEC to extend the deadline to Wednesday 21 August.
The Liberal Party threatened legal action against the electoral body, which was then withdrawn.
Since then, certain figures within the party have blamed each other for the incident.
Party structure
Major political parties are made up of elected officials (parliamentary MPs) and executive officials.
Executives deal with party-related organisational matters, like fundraising, signing up members, and campaigning.
The Liberal and Labor parties are run by separate executives, at state and federal levels.
Takeover
A federal division of a party can take over the operations of a state wing when there are issues within that particular branch.
In the lead-up to the 2022 election, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison took over the NSW Liberal branch.
This was so federal officials could pre-select candidates in certain seats, overriding the state executive’s picks.
In that same year, the Federal Labor executive took over its Tasmanian branch due to internal divisions.
Committee
On Tuesday, the Federal Liberal Executive announced the takeover of the NSW Liberal Party’s state executive.
This followed an internal review of the paperwork deadline debacle for local elections and the party’s “preparedness… to fight the upcoming federal election”.
It announced three party members would overtake the NSW division for the next 10 months.
The named members were: Alan Stockdale, (former Victorian state Treasurer) Richard Alston, (former Senator for Victoria) and Rob Stokes (former NSW Minister).
However, Stokes told media he’s overseas and unable to serve on the committee.
The federal executive is likely to choose someone else to fill Stokes’ spot within the coming days.
NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman said he was “unaware” of the details of the federal intervention until it was announced.
Response
Speakman said it was “important to have female representation on the committee,” and urged the party to replace Stokes’ position with a woman.
Federal Leader Peter Dutton said the takeover was necessary to get the NSW Liberal party “back on track”.
“Our party needs to be functional… The way that it was operating was completely unacceptable to me,” Dutton said.
“We’ll continue to make sure that we can listen to the people of New South Wales,” Dutton added.
What next?
The next 10 months will see the Liberal Party’s decisions in NSW dictated by federal officials. It aims to address “challenges” existing within the party.
After this month’s local council elections, there are also by-elections on 19 October to fill three NSW Parliament seats.
These were triggered by the resignations of three NSW Liberals: Former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, former Treasurer Matt Kean, and MP Rory Amon. Amon is being investigated over alleged child sexual abuse.
