SCOTT Morrison’s dirty dozen have proven to be a disaster for NSW Liberals with not a single seat gained and an average swing against them twice the Coalition’s national average.
Of the 12 candidates parachuted in by the then prime minister, only three retained their seats while one lost his seat and the other eight failed in their efforts to convince voters of their legitimacy.
- Safeguards required to ensure Party follows its constitution to the letter.
- So called ‘captain’s pick’ proven to be the greatest debacle of this election.
- Einstein’s definition of insanity was on full display.
The Captain’s Picks
Source: AEC, May 28 2022.
With a national average swing of -3.2% against the Coalition, Mr Morrison’s picks suffered almost twice that, averaging -6.0% two party preferred (TPP) between them.
The worst of the prime minister’s performers was North Sydney’s Trent Zimmerman who took a 20 per cent hit in TPP support.
WARNED
Despite being repeatedly warned of the dangers of parachuting in unwelcome candidates, Mr Morrison failed to learn the lessons of Gilmore from the previous federal election.
Gilmore was lost in 2019 after Mr Morrison interfered with local preselections and forced Warren Mundine into the south coast seat.
While Mr Mundine was a superb candidate, and no doubt belongs in parliament, he was viewed as an outsider by locals and was treated as such.
A senior Liberal Party member in one of the seats targeted by Mr Morrison this time around has called on the Party to immediately implement reforms.
“I had warned the leadership against taking an autocratic approach to preselection or we’d suffer from another Gilmore debacle, which indeed we did,” he said.
“Einstein’s definition of insanity was on full display.”
The Liberal member also provided a list of suggestions to the Party’s Election Review Committee.
SAFEGUARDS
“We need meaningful action post review, specifically looking at safeguards to ensure that we never again have late and undemocratic preselections,” he said.
“We require safeguards that ensure that the Party follows its constitution to the letter.
“We also need an amendment to the constitution to ensure that federal intervention and ‘specials powers’ are not used to abuse power, particularly in the preselection process.”
He said Mr Morrison and his special committee, including NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and former Federal President Catherine McDiven, had ridden roughshod over members’ constitutional safeguards.
“There was no excuse to reopen nominations when candidates had legitimately nominated by the deadline,” he said.
“It was, likewise, appalling that ineligible candidates were selected by the prime minister’s committee.
“The so called ‘captain’s pick’ has proven to be the greatest debacle of this election.”PC
Scott had no choice but to put a ‘Captain’s pick’ into Warringah & probably other electorates. The NSW Division had no money to run Preselection Conventions having plundered the state Treasury on the infrastructure projects all over Sydney. The Covid crisis in NSW showed that, when only Scott was able to provide the funds for living expenses to get people through. The state govt largely gave out unfulfilled promises. Further proof when 6 state MP’s resigned their electorates, preselections were put on hold. For Scott it became a choice of Captain’s pick or no candidate. But the NSW Division including Parliament, was quick to leave the blame solely on him for those picks. Height of injustice I would say, but the next state election might finish the clean up of the Division and a consequent rebuilding from ground level up.
“Scott had no choice but to put a ‘Captain’s pick’ into Warringah […]”
What a load of absolute twaddle; Lincoln Parker followed the rules and was the duly pre-selected candidate by virtue of being the last man standing.
“[…] only Scott was able […]”
LOL; Scott has never had a real job in his life, and that’s because his lack of abilities have precluded the possibility of him getting one. The truth is that Scott was only able to serve as a limp-wristed mealy-mouthed placeholder PM so that he could do the bidding of his left-wing masters.
I’m surprised that you haven’t figured any of this out yet, and that the election results haven’t given you the faintest clue that faux Liberals are very much on the nose these days. Apparently it’s not just the politicians who aren’t what they used to be; some of their supporters are not particularly sharp either.
The ALP did not do much better- consider Kristin Keneally and
fowler. It is all part of what should be a well known fact – voters do not like parachuted candidates.,
This goes back at least as far as 1965. “At the 1950 general election, he [Reginald Sorenson] was returned to Parliament for the new Leyton constituency. … At the 1964 general election, he was re-elected for a seventh term in the House of Commons. Shortly afterwards, on 15 December 1964, he was created a life peer, as Baron Sorensen, of Leyton in the County of Essex.[5] … He had been offered the peerage to make a vacancy for the Foreign Secretary, Patrick Gordon Walker,[7] who had been defeated in his Smethwick constituency. However, the by-election in January 1965 was won by the Conservative Ronald Buxton.” (from Wikipaedia)
That was the first and I think only time that the area had elected a Conservative candidate..
Captain’s pick is inherently undemocratic. It concentrated power to one person- the one who demanded the power. It rarely works- hope Trump is one of the few for who it works.
The massive failures of these candidates ( need to include Dave Sharma) shows how left leaning supposed conservative candidates don’t fool the voters.
The NSW election next March could have a similar slaughterhouse effect upon MPs such as Matt Kean, David Elliott and Brad Hazzard. Trent Zimmerman copping a massive swing should demonstrate that there is no such thing as a safe liberal seat. Conservatives are not forgiving- they are more inclined to get out the WD 40 to loosen the rust.
It will take a major purge of the “moderates” to regain any trust.
What is baffling is why disgruntled voters did not vote for One Nation, who have the sort of common sense policy voters want. They even have the runs on the board in terms of putting common sense legislation to the vote.
Maybe look into why the Federal Executive decided to move against the State of New South Wales Executive.
Consider the almost too late selection of candidates for the 2022 Federal Election and internal State management.
Problems spanning back a very long time from the beginning of the LINO left.
“Despite being repeatedly warned of the dangers of parachuting in unwelcome candidates, Mr Morrison failed to learn the lessons of Gilmore from the previous federal election.”
That’s what happens when the “Liberal” party has a “leader” who is:
(a) Incompetent,
(b) Ignorant, and
(c) Arrogant.
I saw Katherine Deves at pre-polling, and I asked her the obvious question: “If the Liberal party treats its own members with undisguised contempt, what sort of treatment should voters generally expect from them?” (She couldn’t answer the question, of course, but she implored me not to “waste my vote”, so I gave it to the party that deserved it – I voted informally).