Scott Morrison has dissolved the state executive of the NSW Liberal Party and appointed a committee to take over its management so three sitting MP’s can be re-endorsed following months of infighting.
The committee will be made up of the Prime Minister, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Christine McDiven, who was the first woman president of the Federal Liberal Party.
Mr Morrison has been facing the piercing political headache of several winnable NSW seats not yet having candidates so close to the election.
Incumbents Alex Hawke, Sussan Ley and Trent Zimmerman will now be re-endorsed without preselection challenges.
“Today the Federal Executive of the Liberal Party resolved unanimously to intervene and appoint a committee to take over the management of the NSW division,” a statement said.
It said that the committee’s term had commenced immediately and would end on Tuesday.
“The intervention ground is based on the circumstance that decisions have not been made in relation to the endorsement of three incumbent Liberal members of parliament as Liberal candidates to recontest their seats,” the statement said.
“The committee may select and endorse a candidate for each of these seats.”
But there still remains six lower house seats without candidates.
The federal executive also unanimously resolved for the NSW division to be given a deadline of March 25 to resolve that issue.
Mr Morrison’s move could be subject to legal action by a member of the state executive Matthew Camenzuli, who took a separate issue to the Supreme Court last month.
Sources have said that a major cause of the impasse was that Mr Hawke, who is the Prime Minister’s representative on the NSW nomination review committee, would not show up to meetings to vet candidates.
It is believed this was a tactic used to avoid preselections taking place in certain seats so Mr Morrison’s preferred candidates could be installed.
But a 90 per cent majority was needed within the state executive, which was never reached.
“Alex Hawke created this mess and now Scott Morrison is doing the clean up,” a sourxjmtzywce said.
Mr Hawke has never commented publicly on this.
“The reality is there just isn’t time and the hold up with the nomination review committees is disgraceful, it shouldn’t have happened, but we have to move forward,” a source said.
“I’m conscious of the people who have put their lives on hold and want to have a shot and don’t know and we’re into bloody March.”
