‘Go home to Melbourne': Liberal moderates turn on party after historic election defeat
Moderate Liberal Chris Rath has sprayed the committee appointed to oversee the party in NSW, calling for two of them to 'go home to Melbourne' as a factional conflict over reform threatens to reignite.
Brought in by then-leader Peter Dutton after the NSW Liberals' calamitous failure to nominate 140 candidates in local government elections last September, the administration committee has been canvassing federal Liberals to seek an extension to implement their reform agenda.
The three-person committee of veteran Victorians Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston and former NSW MP Peta Seaton was appointed as temporary replacements for the division's dysfunctional state executive. The trio was responsible for greenlighting decisions made by state director Chris Stone throughout the campaign while searching for solutions to remedy the party's tribalism.
The troika's 10-month tenure is set to expire on June 30. Moderates' attempts to see off an extension were boosted by Sussan Ley's win over conservative Angus Taylor in Tuesday morning's Liberal leadership ballot.
With Ley backed by moderate and centre-right members, Liberal insiders believed the powerbrokers would push for a swift end to the committee's work when its term expired and the usual state executive structure would return.
But the Coalition's election bloodbath has reignited factional grievances over the decision to take over the NSW division last year. Moderates say the troika must take responsibility for Liberals losing three seats in NSW as part of a 3.9 per cent swing against the party – worse than the national average.
Rath said: 'The admin committee has presided over our worst defeat in history. Maybe if they were more focused on the election rather than obsessing over constitutional reform we would've had a better result.
'It's time they go home to Melbourne and give the party back to the party members.'
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