Senior New South Wales Liberal party figures were left blind-sided by the shock nomination of dumped Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons for the seat of Kiama, which followed months of preselection delays caused by local branch members seeking to avoid fielding a candidate against the former Coalition minister Gareth Ward.
Gibbons caught senior Liberal operatives by surprise on Tuesday night when she became the party’s only candidate to nominate in the southern NSW seat just hours before the candidate deadline.
Her preselection – confirmed on Wednesday – comes after months of uncertainty over Kiama. Despite the premier, Dominic Perrottet, insisting in January the Liberals would run in, and win, the seat, nominations were opened on three separate occasions without a confirmed candidate.
Multiple Liberal sources told the Guardian the delays were primarily a result of unwillingness among local branch members to support running a candidate against Ward.
A former minister in the Berejiklian government, Ward is recontesting the seat as an independent despite facing criminal charges over allegations that he sexually abused a man and a 17-year-old boy in two separate incidents dating back several years.
He was suspended from both the NSW parliament and the Liberal party after charges were laid last year. He has been committed to stand trial and denies the allegations.
Ward still enjoys strong political support within the local Liberal party, whose own internal polling has shown it running a distant third behind Ward and the Labor candidate, former journalist and union organiser Katelin McInerney.
Guardian Australia understands that while two potential candidates had earlier indicated an interest in running – Shoalhaven councillor Serena Copley and the former Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Whitlam, Mike Cains – they decided not to due to concern about a lack of resources in the seat.
A third potential nominee – local poet Gail Morgan – did nominate, but was vetoed by the nomination review committee, in part over concern about public expressions of support she had given Ward after the charges.
Local councillor Mark Croxford, who is the head of the Kiama state electorate conference, was one of the branch members who opposed Morgan’s nomination.
This week, Croxford wrote a letter accusing Perrottet of “trashing the legal principle of the presumption of innocence” after the premier told media Ward should remain suspended from parliament even if re-elected in March.
“Remember that Mr Ward has only been charged with historical sexual abuse and has maintained his innocence,” Croxford wrote.
“Despite this, the major parties have declared they would work to have him banned from parliament if he wins as an independent.
“It’s disappointing to see that these actions do not align with the will of the people. Voters have the right to choose who represents them in parliament, and it’s not up to the major parties to deny them that right.”
During a debate on Wednesday both Perrottet and Labor leader Chris Minns said they would not accept Ward’s vote should he be re-elected.
Gibbons’ nomination marks a final attempt to retain her career as an MP after she lost a preselection challenge in her current seat of Holsworthy, and missed out on a bid to replace dumped Liberal upper house MP Peter Poulos.
She lost preselection in Holsworthy to Tina Ayyad last year after having previously planned to run for the federal seat of Hughes, only to be convinced to stay in NSW by Perrottet on the promise of a spot in his ministry.
Gibbons only last month lodged an application with the Liberal state executive to move into the Five Ways branch in the Sutherland Shire, writing on her nomination form that she had been “rejected” from other branches in Hughes.
Senior party figures expressed shock at her decision to run in Kiama, given the party’s poor internal polling, her lack of connection to the local area, lack of support by local branch members and little to no campaign funding.
On Wednesday, the treasurer, Matt Kean, said he welcomed Gibbons’ preselection as a “strong female candidate running in Kiama”. But the Guardian understands that he, like most in the party, was caught completely unaware by her nomination.
He repeatedly refused to answer questions about a preference deal with Ward, saying only that the party was “going to be fighting to win Kiama”.
