Peter Dutton is seizing control of the Liberal Party’s NSW division, but local power players aren’t letting go without a fight.
At a meeting of the NSW state executive last night called to deal with Dutton’s ongoing federal intervention, a motion supported by Dutton’s federal team was defeated, and Crikey’s sources said Dutton’s representative on the committee, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, “went nuts” with irritation while making his arguments.
Dutton originally wanted a three-person committee to take charge, after the NSW divisions’ failure last month to nominate dozens of council candidates for this Saturday’s local elections.
Dutton’s troika would have consisted of former Victorian state treasurer Alan Stockdale, former Howard government minister and Victorian Senator Richard Alston, and ex-NSW minister Rob Stokes (Stokes, it appears, had not been properly consulted before being nominated and was noted last night as being “unavailable to serve”).
Moderates and centre-right factional players on the state executive instead managed to pass a motion to nominate four people to the takeover committee: Alston, Stockdale, and two former NSW Liberal MPs in Peta Seaton, who served in the NSW Parliament, and Fiona Scott, who served in the federal parliament.
Taylor suggested an amendment that would have excluded Scott and kept the committee as a trio, but was voted down.
“Angus was ropable” about the defeat, one source said.
Another source, close to Taylor, said that description was inaccurate. The man himself declined to comment.
The winning motion was moved by NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman, and the sacked state party president Don Harwin did not oppose it, according to The Daily Telegraph.
One of Crikey’s sources, who like all other Liberals are bound by party rules which prevent them from speaking on the record about internal affairs, said: “It’s quite a big deal for Don Harwin to go against the wishes of the federal leader”.
“The view is that the NSW state executive is trying to muddle or water down the federal intervention,” the person added. “Scott’s inclusion was essential to get the [centre-right factional leader Alex] Hawke members of the state executive on board.”
Another state executive source said the two NSW women were needed to balance out the “two elderly men from Victoria, the worst Liberal division in Australia”.
According to the motion that passed, the state executive will “irrevocably delegate … all of its powers” to the four-person committee, “for a period of 10 months”. It also named Chris Stone as state director, a job he previously held for eight years until 2023.
But Dutton will have to rubber-stamp the motion before it takes effect. Crikey is told the party’s federal executive will meet on Friday to deal with it, and Dutton could still override the state executive’s decision.
A state executive source said they hoped the feds would allow the decision to stand.
“They should just accept it and move on, and try to build a relationship with NSW, rather than saying ‘It’s our way or the highway’, which is Angus Taylor’s way of dealing with everything,” the person said.
A spokesperson for Dutton did not respond to a request for comment from Crikey.
