NSW party reforms: Abbott campaign chief urges Turnbull to ensure genuine plebiscites
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Version 0 of 1. Tony Abbott’s local campaign director, Walter Villatora, has called on Malcolm Turnbull to ensure there are genuine plebiscites for all New South Wales party members rather than pandering to lobbyists and party powerbrokers. Villatora, the Warringah conference president who has long been campaigning for changes to the rules governing Liberal preselections, is maintaining pressure following the state council meeting last weekend which saw the prime minister’s motion for wider democratic reforms defeat Abbott’s motion for plebiscites. Turnbull’s motion passed unanimously and resolved to reform the NSW division based on the Victorian branch, which introduced plebiscites. It also resolved to increase female participation, improve training for candidates and improve policy participation. The issues need to be resolved at a future convention in the first half of 2017, according to the motion. The fiery state council meeting came at the end of a controversial week in parliament which saw Turnbull, justice minister Michael Keenan and key conservative immigration minister Peter Dutton challenge Abbott’s version of the guns-for-votes deal. Villatora said the Turnbull-Mike Baird motion was a big step forward but stressed any convention should be binding. “A plebiscite cannot be based on a model that is half pregnant,” Villatora said. “We should have genuine plebiscites and not bother pandering to lobbyists and powerbrokers.” The dominant moderate faction in NSW has opposed changes which would allow all members a vote in preselections for MPs. The right wing has generally been more supportive of plebiscites, though leading moderates Turnbull and Baird are key supporters. A former NSW president, North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman, said after the conference there had to be safeguards on plebiscites to ensure branch stacking did not occur. “We need to stop people who will join the party just to influence the preselection, never be seen at a branch meeting, never to be seen working on election campaigns and never to be seen again after we have had a preselection,” Zimmerman told Sky News. Villatora said he would be looking to the party leadership to ensure the state council motion was not a delaying tactic. “The only acceptable model is a true plebiscite, not the attempt to maintain the control of lobbyists and powerbrokers of 40% central control and an arbiter to judge other members to determine who is a genuine member,” Villatora said. “We continue to look to leadership to ensure that Saturday’s motion was not an obvious ploy to kick the can down the road as another delaying tactic but is a binding convention all genuine members can look forward to, a binding “one member, one vote” convention that will unite the party.” Villatora described the momentum for change in the party as “unstoppable”. “The only reason we have seen this progress is due to the pressure rank-and-file members have exerted on party and the leadership of the prime minister, Tony Abbott, John Howard, NSW premier Mike Baird, Angus Taylor, and General Major (rtd) Jim Molan,” Villatora said in a statement. NSW party president Kent Johns would not comment on issues up for discussion at the convention but he said the resolutions ensured that “everything was on the table”. “My job is to arrange the convention and make sure everyone has a say and out of it, we will become a stronger party and a better party,” Johns said. |