The Liberal federal executive has overturned a bid by the NSW opposition leader, Mark Speakman, to include two women in a panel to run the troubled NSW division.
Speakman’s plan, approved by the state executive, had infuriated conservatives, who accused moderates of attempting to “neutralise” the federal intervention in a “blatant challenge to the leadership of Peter Dutton”.
The decision on Friday ensures federal control of the NSW branch for 10 months, as requested by Dutton, led by two Victorian men and one NSW woman despite calls for inclusion of more women.
On Friday, the Liberal federal executive appointed a three-person panel with two of its original picks – Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston – and one of Speakman’s, Peta Seaton. But the decision excludes federal vice-president and former federal MP Fiona Scott.
In a statement the party said the committee, which will serve until 30 June, “will act swiftly to ensure the NSW Liberal Party is in the best possible position to fight the federal election”, due by May 2025.
The NSW division of the party was plunged into turmoil after it failed to nominate candidates for 140 council seats for the upcoming local government elections.
That prompted federal intervention, with the federal executive giving the NSW executive a deadline of Thursday 12 September to appoint a three-person committee of management to replace its state executive for a period of 10 months.
In a major embarrassment for the party, Rob Stokes, the former NSW planning minister, revealed he had not been asked to serve in the role and was unavailable.
On Tuesday the NSW state executive modified the intervention by approving a plan put forward by Speakman to propose a four-person panel to take over the division, adding two women, Seaton and Scott, into the mix.
On Friday Speakman said he wanted to work with the new committee to have the party’s campaign capacity in “tip-top shape”.
He said he wanted women to be part of the process after the federal executive refused his recommendation for Scott to be part of the new committee.
“Here in NSW I’ll always fight for equal opportunities for talented women to be appointed on merit and to have seats at the table,” he said.
“If we win the upcoming state byelections, the NSW parliamentary Liberal party will be at gender parity for the first time.”
On Thursday Guardian Australia revealed that conservative members of the state executive led by Geoff Pearson, had accused moderate “self-entitled, self-appointed ‘power brokers’” of attempting to “neutralise” the proposed federal intervention. A NSW executive member rejected that claim as “utter rubbish”.
A different Liberal source backed the Speakman plan, saying that “two 80-year-old blokes from Melbourne are not going to help us win teals seats in Sydney”.
Ahead of the federal executive’s decision, Charlotte Mortlock, the executive director of Hilma’s Network, a group dedicated to increasing the number of women in Liberal ranks, said women needed to be part of the federal intervention.
“This is the perfect opportunity to show that not only are women in the party treated well within our structure, but their unique insights are equally as valuable as men’s, and worth listening to,” she said. She had called on Dutton to support both Scott and Seaton’s inclusions.
