NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says a long-running internal Liberal battle over preselections has been a "debacle" for the party.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison scored a significant victory yesterday after the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed a challenge to the legitimacy of 12 candidates he had hand-picked to contest seats in the upcoming federal election.
Mr Perrottet welcomed the win but said it left candidates with precious little time to campaign.
"It's pleasing now that there are candidates that are putting their hands up who'll be endorsed by the Liberal Party," he said.
"But it's an abject failure of the division to not be in a position whereby there are candidates that members of the public here in NSW can vote for if they want to support a Liberal candidate at the next election.
"The election is going to get called any day now and we only [now] have candidates in many seats being endorsed.
"There's not much of a lead-up time."
The NSW Court of Appeal on Tuesday afternoon dismissed a claim that preselections of 12 Liberal candidates by the Prime Minister, Mr Perrottet and former president of the federal Liberal Party Christine McDiven were invalid.
The judgement, which came after months of factional infighting, effectively permits the Liberals' federal executive to intervene in the grassroots preselection process, which is usually handled by rank-and-file members.
On Wednesday evening Matthew Camenzuli, who challenged the Prime Minister's intervention, lodged an application for special leave in the High Court to appeal against the NSW Court of Appeal decision.
He was also expelled from the Liberal Party for endangering the party's chances at the election.
While the election has not yet been called, it is expected to be held in May and nominations for candidates close 10 days after writs are issued.
The case centred on a decision made late last month by the Liberal Party's federal executive to appoint Mr Morrison, Mr Perrottet and Ms McDiven to pick candidates.
Initially, the three-person committee endorsed only sitting MPs Sussan Ley, Alex Hawke and Trent Zimmerman in the seats of Farrer, Mitchell and North Sydney respectively.
However, on Saturday, nine other candidates were preselected hours before the committee's term was due to expire.
Mr Perrottet said he did not blame the Prime Minister's intervention for the stand-off.
"I'm just happy for the Prime Minister that it's finally been resolved," he said.
"Having said that, the feedback I've received from people in the division is that the time it took to get candidates in place was less than ideal and they should have moved on this a lot faster.
"They're finally in a position where they've had to act to get candidates but ... it's not just less than ideal, I think the whole thing has been a bit of a debacle."
Mr Perrottet said he would not make the same mistake in the lead up to the 2023 NSW state election.
"I certainly don't want to be in a position where I don't have people representing the Liberal Party in seats," he said.
"Local candidates need an opportunity, in my view, to campaign — not just on national issues — but on things that concern their local communities.
"That makes it more difficult when you're not in the field for a substantial period of time."
