This was published 1 year ago
‘Not reflecting the community’: Kean issues extraordinary warning to Liberal members
By Tom Rabe
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has launched an extraordinary attack on the Liberal Party’s own membership, warning they are out of step with the voting public and risk being rejected at the state election for failing to preselect enough women.
Kean said he was “devastated” that the NSW Liberal Party’s most senior woman Natalie Ward had fallen short in pre-selection for the ultra-safe seat of Davidson in Sydney’s north on Monday evening despite being backed by Premier Dominic Perrottet.
Ward, who was described by the premier as a future leader of the NSW Liberal Party this week, was narrowly beaten by former Mike Baird staffer Matt Cross, who had strong branch support in the region.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean has warned the Liberal Party could be rejected by voters if it does not endorse more women.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Kean said it was time to reassess the Liberal Party’s internal processes because the current arrangement – which relies on membership plebiscites to determine candidates – was not producing what the voting public wanted.
NSW Roads Minister Natalie Ward is considered a possible future leader of the Liberal Party.Credit: Nikki Short
“When you’ve got someone as talented, as able, and as big a contributor as Natalie Ward, who’s not able to win preselection over a former Liberal staffer, something’s wrong with our systems and processes,” he said.
“We’re not seeing the results that the community expects the Liberal Party to be delivering ... the community has sent a very strong message, not only to the Liberal Party, but to all political parties, that they want to see more diversity in our parliaments.”
Ward, the NSW roads minister, still has four years left in the NSW upper house, but was eyeing a move to the Legislative Assembly after openly stating she held leadership ambitions.
Currently, the leader of the Liberals can only sit in the lower house. However, Kean, who is the deputy of the NSW Liberals, said he would be lobbying to change that after Ward’s failed preselection.
“I’ll be campaigning now and in the coming weeks to ensure that a ballot for the leadership or the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party is able to be contested by a member of the upper house,” he said.
“If our party mechanisms won’t deliver what the community is asking of us, then we need to change our systems and processes and clearly the target process is not working, so we need another mechanism to ensure that our party reflects the values the communities is after.”
Senior NSW Liberals told the Herald they now fear the failure of the party’s most senior woman to win preselection for an ultra-safe seat of Davidson is proof lessons have not been learnt from the federal election whitewash, leaving the Perrottet government further exposed to a teal threat.
Kean also labelled Cross’ idea of small-scale nuclear reactors in every community as a fantasy.
“There’s not a single micro nuclear reactor that’s commercially available anywhere in the world. So people can chase all kinds of fantasies,” Kean said.
Cross, who used his speech to preselectors to push for the Liberals to support nuclear power, has been working on replacing outgoing Davidson MP and Speaker Jonathan O’Dea for years. Sources with knowledge of his speech said Cross suggested reactors could be in every suburb to lower energy prices.
The Treasurer also called for members of the Liberal state executive to re-open the pre-selection for the Northern Beaches seat of Pittwater to allow lawyer Claire Longley to nominate.
Longley, whose father Jim Longley is a former Pittwater MP, was also considered an option and current member Rob Stokes’ preferred replacement but has been unable to nominate due to issues with her membership.
“We’ve only seen one candidate in Pittwater, but I’d like to see more candidates, more competition because that only strengthens our party. That’s what we want to see. That’s what I’ll be driving,” he said.
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