Liberal chair 'tried to get out of' key leadership gig
Former NSW premier Nick Greiner will head a steering committee as the federal takeover of the state's party branch continues for another nine months.
But the man who led the state between 1988 and 1992 admitted he was particularly reluctant to chair the seven-person committee of management appointed on Tuesday afternoon.
"Frankly, I was not keen to take on the job, it's a difficult, internally focused sort of job," he told ABC radio.
"I tried to get out of it but they caught me at Auckland Airport (on Tuesday) at 4.30am and I was weak.
"I don't mean to be jocular about it; that is actually true."
The federal takeover of the Liberals' NSW branch will continue until April 2026 and Mr Greiner made clear he did not want his role to continue beyond that mark.
The move was triggered by the party's failure in August 2024 to nominate more than 140 candidates for statewide local government elections.
It was among a series of bungles for the Liberals' NSW division, beset by widespread factional infighting and a sprawling executive committee which acts as a de facto board.
Mr Greiner acknowledged the party has a problem with women, a far cry from comments made by one of the men whose position he has replaced.
Former committee co-chair Alan Stockdale hit the headlines after the party's crushing loss in the federal election when he told a gathering of female executives on June 3 that Liberal women had become "so assertive" the party might need to consider support for men.
"In my political lifetime, we've gone from having a clear and sustained gender majority for women (voters) ... that's now been reversed, so of course it is obvious," Mr Greiner said.
"Particularly federal, we have not done as well as we should have, with women, with young people, and indeed with multicultural communities, so there's no point denying that, it's a question of how you fix it."
The Liberals lost three of their NSW seats at the federal election and now hold just six statewide.
A former senator and state minister will jointly spearhead a review into the party's disastrous federal election loss.
The Liberals' primary vote at the federal election in May plummeted to its lowest level since the 1940s, slashing the party's representation in the 150-member House of Representatives to just 28 seats.
The party is also in opposition at a state level, where it holds 24 of 93 seats in the lower house.
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