Peter Dutton has said that preselections in New South Wales “will roll out” despite challenges imperilling the Liberal deputy leader, Sussan Ley, and three other colleagues.
The opposition leader threw his support behind Ley, the former immigration minister and Scott Morrison ally Alex Hawke, and the shadow assistant mental health minister, Melissa McIntosh, on Monday, but did not commit to intervene to prevent the challenges occurring.
A decision to allow the preselection stoushes could leave Ley exposed to a highly unusual bid to remove the deputy leader, but Ley appears unfazed and cites support from Dutton, which has included writing to members urging for her to be re-preselected.
Conservatives believe they are likely to unseat McIntosh from her western Sydney seat of Lindsay, that there is a good chance of removing Ley from Farrer in south-west New South Wales and they could possibly remove Hawke from Mitchell.
Hawke also faces a motion attempting to expel him from the party and may require support from moderate Liberals to save his seat, despite ill feeling about delays to preselection before the 2022 election.
A fourth challenge in Bradfield against the manager of opposition business, Paul Fletcher, is considered unlikely to succeed.
Asked if he would intervene on Monday, Dutton said: “I’ve given strong letters of support to each of my colleagues who have asked for it.”
“I’ll provide whatever support is needed to my colleagues: Sussan Ley, obviously as deputy, and Melissa, who’s done a great job and is a very popular local member, and similarly other colleagues that might be challenged.”
“As we know, in the Liberal party and Labor party sitting members can be challenged. There’s a preselection body that comes together made up predominantly of local members of the party. So that process will roll out. But I want them to be re-endorsed by the party.”
Ley is being challenged by Jean Haynes, a conservative who quit the Liberal state executive to contest the seat, with support from party operative Christian Ellis who had pushed for Ley’s removal before the 2022 poll.
In July Ley described the challenge against her as “a bit unusual” but said that “rank-and-file preselections absolutely should have their place, and if I go through that, I go through that”.
“I’m very happy to put myself forward on my record as the Liberal member of my seat of Farrer for 22 years,” she told the ABC’s Insiders.
When asked whether Dutton was supporting her, Ley said: “Absolutely. Yes he is.”
In May, Dutton set a timetable for early preselections in 24 NSW seats in a bid to avoid a repeat of delays which resulted in a last-minute intervention and hand-selection of nine candidates ahead of the 2022 poll.
The NSW state executive has commenced preselections for just eight of the seats, putting it technical breach for the remaining 16 which could trigger federal intervention at any time.
Such an intervention could allow an administrator to impose a timetable for preselections or reappoint sitting members, as occurred before the 2022 election.
In April 2022 the former prime minister, Scott Morrison, defended that intervention, which he said had protected Ley from a preselection challenge and had helped other women and multicultural candidates run for parliament.
On Monday Dutton was also asked about the fate of Liberal National party senator Gerard Rennick, who has launched an appeal against a vote dumping him from the Queensland election ticket.
Dutton said it was a matter for the Queensland LNP whether to re-run the preselection vote.
“I supported Senator Rennick before, he’s done a great job for the people of Queensland. I supported him in the preselection – if there is to be a rerun of the preselection, I’ll support him in that as well.”
