An extraordinary bunfight over control in the NSW Liberal Party that could hurt Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s chances of re-election was at the centre of an urgent court hearing on Thursday.
Just months out from the election, Mr Morrison faces the debacle of not yet having candidates in nine key seats in NSW – a state deemed critical to the Coalition being able to be returned at the next election – due to a factional stand off within the Liberal Party.
The Sydney Supreme Court hearing on Thursday heard opposing arguments about whether the term of the party’s state executive – which acts like a company board – expires this Monday because it hasn’t held an annual general meeting yet to select office holders due to hurdles caused by Covid and by-elections.
This legal advice was put to the party last week by Liberal Party counsel Robert Newlinds SC and would make federal intervention inevitable, thereby giving Mr Morrison more power over which candidates are preselected.
But this interpretation of the party’s constitution is being challenged by Matthew Camenzuli, part of the hard right faction of the NSW division’s executive committee that wants branch members to choose candidates after holding preselection ballots.
Mr Camenzuli’s barrister Scott Robertson on Thursday argued that the state executive’s term didn’t expire until the annual general meeting actually took place – even if it was delayed.
“If there’s no AGM for any reason they would on your construction hold office in perpetuity correct?” Justice Julie Kathryn War, the Chief Judge in Equity, then asked.
Mr Robertson said in practice that would only be the case if 70 per cent or more of the 500-member state council agreed or acquiesced to that course of action.
He said the obligation to hold the AGM sat with the council, not the executive.
He also argued that if the state executive was not allowed to continue in office after Monday, it would no longer be made up of elected members from the state council.
This, he said, would do “significant violence” to the party’s structure as outlined in the constitution.
But Barrister Nicholas Bender for the opposing view said that the NSW Liberal Party would not become a rudderless ship if the executive committee was unable to serve past Monday.
He said that under the constitution the state director would be required to call a meeting of the state council after this date.
Mr Bender said non-elected members – like Immigration Alex Hawke who is Mr Morrison’s representative on the state executive – would be in attendance at that meeting and this would be sufficient to meet quorum.
Justice Ward has reserved her judgment ahead of Monday’s looming deadline.
The Liberal Party is yet to select candidates in six important NSW seats ahead of the election due to the infighting: Eden Monaro, Dobell, Warringah, Parramatta, Hughes and Bennelong.
The preselection of sitting MPs Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney, Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Mr Hawke has also not been finalised.
Mr Hawke has been accused of refusing to attend candidate review meetings, thereby delaying the process so federal intervention can happen.
He is named as a defendant in the case but his lawyer did not make any submissions on Thursday.
Mr Hawke has not spoken publicly about the preselection process or responded to accusations that he has stalled the process.
