‘No hope:’ Gaff duds Libs’ election chances

Furious NSW Liberal Party members fear the state executive’s “unforgivable” local council election blunder that dudded Liberal candidates from running in up to 12 councils could foreshadow further stumbles as the party gears up for a federal election in early 2025.

On Wednesday, it was revealed the state secretariat had missed the noon deadline to register the candidates, with senior Liberal figures calling for the resignation of state director Richard Shields.

Hours after the fallout, NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman spoke to federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton, stating Mr Shields’ position is untenable, and called on him to resign.

It’s understood no Liberal candidates will run in the Blue Mountains, Camden, Campbelltown, Lane Cove, Northern Beaches, Shoalhaven and Wollongong local council elections, while only partial nominations were submitted for Canterbury-Bankstown, Georges River, Maitland, North Sydney and Penrith.

One senior Liberal figure said a lack of presence at the local council elections on September 14 would affect the party’s federal chances next year, especially in the marginal federal seats that the Liberals must either win or retain to win back government.

The insider cited Georges River Council, which sits in the Banks seat and is held by Liberal MP David Coleman on a 3.2 per cent margin.

The party will also be looking at winning back the Liberal-turned-Teal seat of Mackellar, which takes in the Northern Beaches Council, while also retaining Lindsay, which includes Penrith City Council.

Gilmore, which includes the Shoalhaven City Council, is another key electorate, Labor’s Fiona Phillips turned the seat red in the 2022 federal election; however, it sits on an ultra-slim 0.2 per cent margin and will be contested by former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance next year.

“You look terrible and you’ve just given your opponents a free kick. Labor should dominate in each of those councils now,” the senior Liberal figure said.

Another senior Liberal source pointed to the state seat of Parramatta, which the party lost to Labor candidate and City of Parramatta Lord Mayor Donna Davis in last year’s state election. 

“This is so bad, so, so bad. A lot of people credit us (the state executive) with that loss because we didn’t run Liberals for the Parramatta council elections, and Ms Davis used her profile as mayor to win the state election,” they said. 

“This isn’t me and many others catastrophising. This is a stuff-up beyond stuff-ups because it impacts both state and federal elections.”

It’s understood that despite requests to do so, head office ordered anxious candidates against putting in last-minute submissions to run as independents after they had raised concerns over the looming cut-off as early as a week ago. 

Pointing the finger at state party president Don Harwin, the senior Liberal said Mr Harwin was still “wheeling and dealing” and overseeing “internal party games” instead of submitting nominations.

While most Liberal sources asked for anonymity while venting their outrage, former NSW Liberal state executive Carmelo Pesce said Wednesday’s gaffe was a sign the Liberal Party had taken the community for granted.

The former Sutherland Shire mayor resigned from the party last week and will run in the local elections as an independent.

“If they can’t even get local council tickets together, there’s no hope for anything else,” he said. 

“The Liberal Party got shown up at the last election by Teals, and if they’re not careful, you’re going to lose more seats.

“I’ve been told this is the concern of federal department, that the NSW division is one of the worst divisions Australia has. They just can’t get their stuff together, and this is a perfect example of that.” 

Fighting for his role, Mr Shields has apologised to the Liberal-endorsed candidates who will now be unable to run.

“With the secretariat resources that we had available, unfortunately we were unable to nominate all of the local government areas that were put forward by the state executive,” he said in a statement

“The status of nominated Liberal candidates will be communicated upon confirmation from the NSW Electoral Commission.

“On behalf of the secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal-endorsed councillors that were not nominated and to the party members more broadly.”