Liberals’ desperate move after epic stuff up
Written by admin on August 17, 2024
The NSW Liberal Party has made a desperate move to stop a potentially disastrous outcome in upcoming council elections after a stunning bureaucratic failure led them miss a nomination deadline for candidates.
State Liberal Party president Don Harwin has reportedly written to the NSW Electoral Commission requesting a one-week extension in the nomination period to give the party more time to submit the necessary paperwork.
The ABC reports the commissioner has received the letter and is now “considering” it.
The Party missed a noon Wednesday deadline to nominate up to 140 candidates for next month’s elections in a dramatic administrative blunder that has left Liberals fuming.
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.
State director Richard Shields was sacked on Thursday night in the fallout.
Liberal strategists are also concerned the stuff-up at the local level could affect federal politics.
One senior Liberal figure said a lack of presence at the September 14 council elections 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, as well as 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.”
The NSW Electoral Commission and NSW Liberal Party have been contacted for comment.
