THE former blue ribbon federal seat of Warringah has been designated a “Left only” zone, as the Liberal Party refuses to endorse the only legitimate candidate standing.
Defence expert and Warringah local Lincoln Parker, who is factionally unaligned, has been refused endorsement by Party officials who have called for nominations to re-open.
- Liberal Party factions don’t want to win the seat; they want the right to own the candidate.
- Such infighting, particularly in the last few years, has disenfranchised a generation of new members and high-quality candidates.
The move has been criticised by senior Warringah Liberals and political commentators alike as incumbent climate extremist, Zali Steggall, receives a free pass for an election expected in May.
Despite Mr Parker’s legitimacy, the Party has been desperately searching for a Left-wing plant since Liberal “moderate” Jane Buncle withdrew her nomination earlier this year. Katherine Deves and David Brady are among those approached – despite both failing to nominate by the January cut-off.
SCATHING
In a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week, senior Warringah Liberal Walter Villatora, a Liberal branch president, was scathing of the Left’s games.
“Self-interest has prevailed, from the Left faction in particular, to reopen the nominations for the purpose of imposing an out-of-area, Left faction candidate, who is ineligible,” Mr Villatora wrote.
“These factional machinations – that go to the highest levels in our Party – are creating the real possibility of a Labor government at a time of great international upheaval and uncertainty.
“This goes to national security and the national interest.”
Mr Villatora said Lincoln Parker had the credentials and community support to return Warringah to the Liberal Party.
“Lincoln Parker is a highly respected local with strong security and defence credentials and is a strong advocate in education and special needs,” he wrote.
“He is an outstanding media and public speaking performer.
“This makes him a very real alternative to the incumbent who is flailing and in great difficulty due to donations from the coal sector and alleged fraudulent behaviour in relation to donation disclosure.
“The current factional infighting, however, is causing enormous disunity.
“It is pitting the grassroots membership against the political class within the Party.
“Is controlling a branch of the Liberal Party more important than the national interest? It would seem that the answer from the leadership is an emphatic yes!”
Mr Villatora said Party factions had carved out seats they claim to “own”.
“There is a factional mindset, which is accepted by the leadership, that factions ‘own’ specific seats, with the Left ‘owning’ Warringah and North Sydney and the soft-Right ‘owning’ Mitchell as an example,” Mr Villatora said.
“What has played out, particularly in the last few years in the lead up to the May election, has disenfranchised a generation of new members and high-quality candidates.
“This is mission accomplished for the factions which are threatened by accomplished professionals considering entering parliament, which is sadly understandable.”
LOST
Sky News host Chris Smith said Liberal factional brawling meant the defeat of “under fire” Climate 200 candidate Zali Steggall was “slowly but surely being lost”.
“The Liberal Party still hasn’t selected a candidate. How fast asleep can you be?” Mr Smith asked on air.
“Or is it the moderate arm of the Party exercising some of their infamous brand of conservative cleansing?” he said.
“They have one, young local, a loyal Liberal Party member in Lincoln Parker, who’s nominated fairly under the rules.”
Mr Smith said Lincoln Parker was the “only one standing” but because he wasn’t a factional moderate, head office had reopened nominations – “ignoring him time and time again”.
AIDING
He said the NSW Liberal Executive was playing a “power trip” and “aiding and abetting” Zali Steggall’s campaign.
“They don’t want to win the seat; they want to have the right to own the candidate.
“I barrack for Lincoln Parker because he’s been in this studio several times, he’s full of common sense and has an incredible grasp of national security issues.
“For heaven’s sake, select Lincoln Parker, start exposing Zali Steggall, and get on with it.”PC
I’m very sad.
However, it is time for us to buckle in and win government.
Remember, left and right factions have no place in a Liberal party.
The LP is a broad church and as such we should tolerate all views without starting divisive brawls.
Bottopm line – restore democratic principles to the party or it will lead to a Menzies-era reformation – name change etc.
Or worse – like old Labor – with a separate DLP-like split that may give us an Arthur Caldwell personality type and keep us out of Government for 20 years.
And that WILL be a disaster.
Stay unified and win – start a factional brawl and lose.
It is as simple as that.
“The LP is a broad church […]”
No it is not; it’s a complete and utter dog’s breakfast that is in the sway of amoral leftists who continue to ride roughshod over a feckless rump of conservatives.
“I’m very sad.”
No you are not; you are delusional.
Here’s a test for the Federal Triumvirate.
As Walter Villatora says “Lincoln Parker is a highly respected local with strong security and defence credentials and is a strong advocate in education and special needs.”
Just a talk with Lincoln Parker would persuade anyone even slightly committed to the national interest that here is a person desperately needed in the parliament and one who easily outshines La Steggall who in a hung parliament, is certain to support the formation of an Albanese government because he promises to wreck the economy earlier than Morrison with that disaster Net Zero Emissions.
If there is the slightest justification in the Triumvir’s coup it must surely be to appoint electable and real Liberals, not LINO’s.
And while they are at it, why not offer Paramatta to Tony Abbott?
David, thank you 🙂 I cannot but feel it has gone too far now and I’m for supporting UAP, ON, GAP, LD’s, RUA To name but a few 🙂 And would suggest to those still interested in this country to leave the LNP and go with one of those I have suggested! Sadly Turncoat and Scurvy Scott have all but destroyed the libs and feel they need to be shown the door but not at our expence to Labor/Greens so a total change to those having the right policies to have a chance to prove themselves away from the crooks and traitors so they can all be as Craig Kelly proposes, “be sacked” !
The solution is for the local members to support an “Independent Liberal”, pledged to give second preferences on his “How to vote Cards” to the official Liberal. If he gets a decent number of votes he will then be in with a chance to unseat Mrs Steggall, If he doesn’t, his votes will flow on to the official Liberal, who then may have chance of beating Mrs Steggall.
Whatever morons are demanding a Marxist lib candidate for Warringah have ensured that they will lose big time. Seems like the party of Kean and Sharmer etc. need a long period in the wilderness to rebuild as a centre right party again.
Liberal MPs wouldn’t understand the meaning of the term honour even if they were clobbered with baseball bats at the 2022 election. I’m a conservative who realises the Liberal Party needs a complete clean-out of its radicalised politicians – from the top down
But what it needs is a revolt from all LNP, Labor/Greens to ON, UAP, RUA, LD’s, GAP and those who still believe this country is worth fighting for 🙂 There are no other alternatives 🙂
Absolutely spot on. I have already accepted we will soon have a Labor government. Extremely sad but good riddance to the incumbent rubbish.
We Liberal Party members won the right in 2017 to have a say in selecting our parliamentary representatives. The political elites weren’t happy, but they accepted the overwhelming Party decision at the time.
Since then, these same elites have done all they can to disenfranchise us. Morrison being the chief of those who betrayed us.
Well guess what! The Liberal Party has lost its members’ support, it has lost its volunteers and it deserves to go the same way as Western Australia and South Australia.
Good riddance Mr Morrison – you political scoundrel.
Agreed but not if it means having a federal Labor Government! If whatyou suggest may happen then this country will be lost to the UN’s New World Order! This is where we need the peope to rise and support UAP, ON, RUA LD”s, GAP. And pull it all from the three majors and start with fresh teams all supporting a free Australian government so we can close down the Corporate ones Altogether 🙂
Go woke, go broke. Better a wombat than voting for Marxist LINO’s. Libs need to learn at any cost they have trashed their conservative base. They need to be out of office just like Marshmellow Marshall in SA to rebuild.
Lincoln Parker successfully outmaneuvered his Party colleagues to win uncontested pre-selection for Warringah. Then the grubby Left faction stepped in, with the PM’s blessing, and unconstitutionally re-opened nominations. Unfortunately for these treacherous bozos, PM included, Lincoln hasn’t rolled over to their self-serving games. The fight is on. Either Mr Parker’s legitimate nomination is approved – or the Party can kiss Warringah good-bye for the medium term. Campaign volunteers and party members are prepared to strike over this betrayal.
I trust the NSW Liberal Division plans to fund the Warringah campaign, then, and man the booths because I doubt the membership will!
Please give us a candidate. I cannot believe you are giving Ms Steggall a free pass, especially given the disgraceful campaign mounted against Tony Abbott last election. Let us have Lincoln Parker, Liberals need hope.
There is a profound dilemma in the upcoming Federal election: it is a race-to-the-bottom between two major parties that have discarded whatever principles that once defined them. An Albanese led Government is not something I would hope for in such troubled times. Yet the vacuum of principled leadership and strong economic policies supporting a productive economy is hardly filled by the Liberal Party. Maybe we have to have another disfunctional period of Federal Government (either Liberal or Labor) before one side or another throws up a leader of principle. Does it take another fiasco like the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd period for us to have a clear majority under a leader such as Tony Abbott? Yet….we then had to endure the self-serving arrogance of a Turnbull leadership to cruise into the more moderate Morrison years. Moderate, but with no particular philosophy other than “Vote for us, we are not as bad as the others”. Really? Maybe another period of disfunction is what is needed to convince people to vote for a party that has real values to endure economic progress and eliminate the idiocy of woke, Trendy-Wendy distractions. Is disfunction and destruction the only weapon that will ensure the rise of a realistic set of policies and principles in either Liberal or Labor???
Thanks David but I believe it is way past time for the rule to be taken from the current crop of too priviledged politicians and the baton passed to some new recruits to get improvement in our governments! Fresh Ideas from LD’s UAP and Kelly, One Nation and their new ones would be like a breath of fresh air and remove the power of the Duopoly leaning on Green favours of stupidity and Powerbrokers so entrenched with these Party’s! Like him or not Clive Palmer is a successful businessman and I feel could be trusted far more than all the Public servant and Union flow on’s 🙂
If they do a number on Scott as they did to Tony Abbott, maybe the power needs to be taken right out of the NSW Division hands by electing a Liberal PM from another state. That would probably floor the NSW division because state govt is on the nose too and unlikely to win the next election, so the NSW division would go on the political scrap heap necessitating a thorough clean out!
The left are a bunch of Marxists who want power for self serving reasons like milking the renewables subsidy scam. These selfish mongrels are happy to destroy our energy security and Western values. I will be voting for a conservative candidate or no-one at all. PERIOD!
I recommend The Australian newspaper today, 16 March, and the article written by investigative journalist Sharri Markson: “How Labor’s “mean girls” ostracised (Senator) Kimberley Kitching.
And Labor women have the hide to accuse the Coalition of not treating women respectfully!!!
I watched an interview recently with Lincoln Parker, he would be a very impressive candidate and with a background of experience that at this point in our nation’s history and external pressures.
How did the real Menzies’ Australian Liberal Party members not know that an MP who replaced a sitting Liberal MP in a then safe seat by organising the biggest branch stacking exercise in history to become the candidate had first tried to gain Labor Party endorsement but was rejected planned to wreck the Liberal Party?
His plan to create a left leaning globalist focused alliance of left side political parties to gradually dominate governments in Australia.
People just think on this . Old Zali Nazi was /is really a ALP candidate that was backed by them and Get Up to oust Abbot but they knew that nobody would vote for her as a ALP runner so the independent scam was created . Now she got $100,000 from a Coal Company ( goes against her motto ??) . She posted a video stating next to a tree in Canberra Parliament House saying that the leaves were falling due to climate change when it is deciduous tree that sheds it leaves every year in Autumn. I am not a fan of either big party but Lincoln would be better for Warringah than Zali Nazi .
But she is from “the sensible right” according to her 2019 Federal Election campaign presentations.
/sarc.
This issue has come up time and again.
If ANY Party can’t exercise the democracy of the branch membership to select the candidate for the next election, then how can that Party canvas for the wider democratic vote come election-time?
More particularly, any such party that keeps repeating this sort of rookie error does not deserve support.
Time to get this back to the people, you know the ones in charge of our Constitution! If the people of Warringah want Lincoln then they need to shout louder and make an effort 🙂
If the left LNP won’t allow Lincoln Parker to stand he should stand as an independent and all Warringah Liberals vote for him. At least we would have a moderate conservative to represent us in Warringah.
If Lincoln Parker is pushed aside by L/NP socialist wing then all of his supporters should have their membership fees re-imbursed for the mistaken belief that the L/NP is democratic. I mean it’s (L/NP) democratic the same way that North Korea is called DPRK and Cambodia in April 1975 became Democratic Kampuchea. CLOT MORRISON is Australia’s worst EVER PM. Possibly it’s worst ever MP to -boot
The clot is the commentator who can only see a clot, apparently, and must be a perfect target for left propaganda spin and related character assassination, the blamed for everything political smear game.
Lincoln Parker would have been a great candidate. Possible winner of seat?
We have four remaining left wing parties / candidates to choose from: Zali, ALP, L/NP or the Greens. I’ll be voting them all last and putting 1 LDP 2 UAP. Greens last, ALP second-last, L/NP third-last (unless it’s Lincoln Parker?) & Zali fourth-last (I.e., above the Greens, Labor, L/NP). Because, there’s still a chance Zali might come good for us fossil-fuel users and supporters because she apparently took donations from our kind.
When Our Prime Minister and the State Executive of Our party indulge in activity to side-step the constitutional democratic process of Our party, it is time to be more than a little concerned. What is happening is simply outrageous.
The treasonous parliament side stepped the constitutional democratic process of the whole country so what did you expect.
The Prime Minister has been working as hard as he can to remove the influence of the LINO left.
I hope they come up with some pathetic monarchist like ten-pound Tony.
Then that grovelling little monarchist suck hole can get smashed, just like ten-pound Tony.
Abbott, unlike the poster, is at least a man. How many people’s lives did he save as a lifeguard, how many properties did he help to save when fighting bushfires, how many kids did his and his wife’s fund raising efforts help, and what a loss he is to parliamentary life. The wankers of Warringah threw him out as they wanted windmills, high electricity prices, and poverty for poor people.
As the party plays its tricks, the Warringah membership is mobilising. We have our candidate. We don’t need ‘guidance’ from the leftist radicals within the party. Lincoln Parker is the legitimate Liberal nominee. Either the Liberal elites accept this truth – or it will made embarrassingly clear at a pre-selection plebiscite.
Maybe some prompting may be in order from these people! https://www.facebook.com/messenger_media?thread_id=642346741&attachment_id=308786531351309&message_id=mid.%24cAABa9CuqN5-F_wGOOV_zbxE6vbJf