NSW Liberals lobby party to implement US-style primary system to choose candidates as re-build continues

Sky News AU

08-07-2025

High ranking NSW Liberals are calling on Sussan Ley to consider imposing a US-style primary system to pre-select candidates in significant structural overhaul of the party's long-standing practices.
The NSW Liberals were all but decimated at the recent federal election which has led to internal debate about how to bolster the party's appeal and revitalise aging local branches.
Gender quotas have become a point of contention within the party, with proponents and critics engaging in a bitter public dispute including in a leaked group chat titled 'quotas v merit' where senior Libs debated the policies validity.
However, top NSW Liberals have touted a separate route, urging the party to revamp its pre-selection process through the use of US-style open primary elections.
Shadow attorney general and federal member for Berowra Julian Leeser has said opening up pre-selection to non-members and the wider public would expand the Liberal Party's scope and bring in a new wave of members.
'The best way to ensure that our members reflect the communities that they represent is to have the largest number of members of the general community choose them,' Mr Leeser told the Telegraph.
Mr Leeser, who is one of the last Liberal members occupying an outer-metropolitan seat nationwide said the plan would increase 'diversity' and 'overcome the challenge of a declining membership an supporter base.'
Liberal Party pre-selection, which currently involves local party members and state delegates voting to choose a candidate, would be scrapped, with all eligible voters in the relevant electorate given the chance to have their say under the proposed model.
Mr Leeser, who narrowly fended of a challenge from local publisher turned Teal candidate Tina Brown said holding US-primary style elections would bring ideological vigour to local branches and allow the community to actively immerse themselves in the inner workings of the Party.
He insisted it would 'demonstrate to the general public that we are a broad, open welcoming party that is seeking the best talent available.'
Mr Leeser has been a long-time advocate of parachuting the concept of US primary elections down under, with the move also receiving the support of numerous party elders including former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.
The method was previously considered a fringe idea in Liberal ranks.
Shadow defence minister and former Liberal leadership contender Angus Taylor backed Mr Leeser's proposal and said open primaries could aid in rebuilding the party's 'grassroots movement.'
'One pathway to do that would be by bringing in primaries,' Mr Taylor told The Daily Telegraph.
'The objective here has to be to rebuild the grassroots political movement that stands for our values, and to do that we're going to have to involve and engage people in ways we haven't before.'
Mr Taylor's staunch NSW Right factional ally Anthony Roberts also endorsed primary elections and said it would prevent powerbrokers from hand selecting their candidate of choice in a given electorate.
'The days of captain's picks have got to be over, they are proven not to work,' Mr Roberts said.
Mr Leeser said the party should work to commence a trial to gauge the efficacy of primary elections, and that the method should be piloted in a Teal, regional and western Sydney seat.