Going to court over the NSW Liberal Party’s nomination blunder would be too costly and disruptive for the campaigning candidates, party heavyweights were told on Tuesday night via an email leaked to Crikey.
Lawyers who looked at the case on behalf of the Liberals also believed the outcome would be far from certain, according to the email to the party’s state executive committee written by acting state director Wilson Chessell.
“As you will recall, the state president wrote to you last week that the party would explore all options to rectify the issues regarding nominations for the local government elections on 14 September 2024,” Chessell wrote in the email.
“Subsequently, we sought urgent legal advice from Dr James Renwick SC and Brendan Lim. This advice was received this afternoon.
“After considering that advice, I have concluded that it would be inadvisable for the party to commence proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW.”
Renwick is a silk with 12 Wentworth Selborne Chambers, and Lim is a barrister with Eleven Wentworth. Both are based in Sydney and have experience representing the Australian Electoral Commission in court. Neither could be reached for comment by Crikey.
According to Chessell’s email, the reasons for abandoning the plans to take the NSW Electoral Commission to court were the uncertainty of the outcome, the possible cost to the NSW Liberal division, and the possible effect on the Liberal local government campaign.
Still, Chessell repeated a claim that the failure to nominate many of the party’s candidates was because of an “error” by the commission.
Liberal sources — speaking freely on the condition of anonymity as Liberals are barred from speaking publicly about internal matters — told Crikey the projected cost of the court action hadn’t been shared with the state executive.
“The executive hasn’t been briefed, and there’s frustration about that,” one person said.
“People were a bit upset. I think they want us to go to court and test it out, but it’s just too expensive.”
There has been speculation about other lawsuits stemming from the nomination failure: some candidates who didn’t get nominated are considering a class action suit over lost application fees and other costs associated with preparing their campaigns, the Australian Associated Press reported.
One would-be candidate who spoke to Crikey said “all options were on the table”, but added the most important thing would be to support the people who did get nominated.
Other sources said the party hoped to turn a page and focus on the campaign ahead.
There has also been speculation by party members that Richard Shields, the former state director who was blamed for the failure, may take action of his own. Sources told Crikey he arrived at an emergency state executive meeting last Thursday with a lawyer by his side and took all questions on notice.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, “The Liberal Party’s legal advice conceded that Shields might sue the party for unfair dismissal, but he would in effect be suing the holding group that sits above the party, Bunori Pty Ltd”.
Shields did not respond to a request for comment.
