The Liberal Party faces internecine warfare if officials proceed with plans to parachute outsiders into key NSW seats, as furious members threaten legal action and a mass boycott of the campaign.
A branch president in Tony Abbott’s former electorate of Warringah, Walter Villatora, emailed party officials and a senior aide to Prime Minister Scott Morrison vowing “a civil war in the party that will go far beyond Warringah and could potentially derail the Morrison government’s already fragile electoral prospects”.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit:Louie Douvis
The email, obtained by the Herald, responded to a deal that would install disability campaigner and moderate Liberal David Brady as the candidate for Warringah over the conservative Lincoln Parker, as well as management consultant Alex Dore in the seat of Hughes over state MP Melanie Gibbons.
Neither of the men live in those electorates, while of the nine candidates who would be endorsed without local preselections under the deal, only two are women. The federal executive will meet on Friday morning to discuss the proposal, which was recommended by NSW division president Philip Ruddock.
Sources close to Mr Parker -who requested anonymity because party rules forbid them speaking publicly about internal matters – said the defence analyst will run as an “independent” if he is not endorsed as the Liberal candidate, and would attract support from several branch presidents and a major Liberal donor.
However, most senior Liberals have abandoned all hope of winning back the seat from independent Zali Steggall anyway.
David Brady, another interested Warringah candidate Katherine Deves and Lincoln Parker.
Meanwhile, a right-wing member of the NSW division’s executive committee, Matthew Camenzuli, has again engaged barrister Scott Robertson for advice about a legal challenge to the intervention. Last week Mr Robertson, on Mr Camenzuli’s behalf, successfully challenged the party’s legal advice on a separate but related matter in the Supreme Court.
Mr Villatora, president of the Condamine branch, said Mr Brady was “a nice person by all accounts” but was “unknown” in Warringah, lives outside the electorate in Willoughby and had nominated for the Liberal Senate ticket, not the lower house.
“It is unacceptable to enforce an ineligible outsider, in this case, David Brady, to be the Liberal candidate for Warringah,” Mr Villatora wrote in the lofty email that also cited Albert Einstein.
“Warringah is the home of the democratic reform movement. And yet you are proposing to breach the party’s constitution and install a person who’s [sic] first contact with the conference will be on the basis of breaching the rules in contempt of the membership from which he will be seeking support.”
Mr Villatora referenced the failed campaign of Warren Mundine in the South Coast seat of Gilmore at the last election. Mr Mundine was parachuted in from Sydney’s north shore as a captain’s pick by Mr Morrison.
“Einstein’s definition of insanity is to repeat the same actions and expect a different outcome – did we not learn anything from the Gilmore debacle?” Mr Villatora wrote. If the deal proceeded, local party members “will revolt and simply walk away”, he asserted.
In the southern Sydney seat of Hughes, held by former Liberal Craig Kelly, there is also anger over the plan to insert Mr Dore, a PwC management consultant from Manly and a former vice-president of the Warringah electorate conference.
Alex Dore is set to be installed as the Liberal candidate for Hughes.
In his recommendation of Mr Dore, who didn’t nominate for the seat, Mr Ruddock said the people who had nominated were “not suitable” – including Holsworthy state MP Ms Gibbons.
The deal was voted on by 23 NSW Liberal Party officials on Wednesday, with 16 in favour, six against and one abstaining. That was not enough to formally carry the plan as it required 90 per cent support, but the majority view will likely prevail when federal officials meet on Friday.
Mr Camenzuli warned in his email this would enrage party members. “Federal intervention will be incendiary in NSW and will be corrosive to our party’s electoral prospects,” he wrote.
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