The Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, wants to back a winner. Even if it means endorsing two candidates in the New South Wales Senate race.
Dutton has backed the former ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja for the spot that was opened up by Marise Payne’s resignation, with Seselja the hope of the party’s hard right.
Seselja has promised to continue the war on “woke” and Dutton has praised Seselja, who recorded the lowest ever primary vote for a Liberal Senate candidate at the last election when he lost to independent David Pocock, for his commitment to public life “as a cause, not just a career”.
But while backing Seselja, who also has the former prime minister Tony Abbott hitting the phones for him, Dutton has endorsed the comparatively moderate former NSW state minister Andrew Constance.
Constance is seen as the frontrunner in the race, having lost the last Senate spot to Maria Kovacic. Party insiders say Dutton’s endorsement is part of the Liberal leader’s habit to only endorse people he has worked with.
Constance’s public endorsements extend further into the opposition frontbench too. Federal moderates Simon Birmingham and Paul Fletcher are also hoping to call him a colleague in the Senate.
But with Constance thought to be the candidate to beat, there are others who view Dutton’s backing as a strategy to get behind the winner.
The dark horse who could spoil the party though is Dominic Perrottet’s former staffer Monica Tudehope, who could come up the middle and emerge victorious, Scott Morrison style.
Tudehope, whose father is the former NSW Liberal minister Damien Tudehope, has the personal backing of the Business Council of Australia chief, Bran Black, and her old boss, the former NSW premier.
Black worked with Tudehope while chief of staff to Perrottet and praised her work ethic. Tudehope is also from the right, but is not as far right as Seselja, with her supporters hoping her more moderate views will attract the backing of Liberal members tired of the far right’s culture wars.
A victory for Tudehope will also send a signal the Liberal party is choosing a new future over “recycling” male politicians, her supporters say.
The three have emerged as the top contenders in a Senate race being fought by 10 candidates, including the former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma.
Sharma is seen as a challenge for the moderate vote, which could threaten Constance’s support in the early rounds of voting. Payne has backed Constance, but outgoing members are not seen as holding the same amount of influence on electors.
The former NSW upper house member Lou Amato is also believed to have strong numbers in western Sydney, threatening to peel off on-the-fence voters from some of the frontrunners.
The Lowy Institute’s Jess Collins and the former NSW RSL president James Brown are also wooing the 700 or so NSW Liberal members with a vote. Rounding out the unusually large field are legal eagles Ishita Sethi, Nimalan Rutnam and Pallavi Sinha.
The vote is to be decided on Sunday, after which the successful candidate will be affirmed by the NSW parliament.
