NSW Liberal Party director sacked over local election paperwork blunder
The New South Wales Liberal Party's council election debacle has claimed its first head. State director Richard Shields has been sacked. And with the party in turmoil, one Liberal heavyweight has revealed he'll be backing an opposing candidate in his council's race for Mayor.
Transcript
00:00He dug in for as long as he could.
00:04Will you resign or are you waiting to be sacked?
00:07I'll repeat what I said.
00:09Calls for my resignation is premature.
00:14But after resisting calls to fall on his sword,
00:17State Director Richard Shields was cut loose by the State Executive late last night.
00:22This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.
00:28After gloating yesterday,
00:30For what it's worth Mr Speaker, I think Richard Shields is doing a great job.
00:34the Premier took a more sympathetic tone today.
00:37I think the temptation is to crow about it, but in actual fact it's sad.
00:41The party failed to lodge the paperwork for almost 140 candidates by Wednesday's deadline.
00:47It did manage to nominate a mayoral candidate for Hornsby,
00:50but the ABC can reveal the current Hornsby mayor, Philip Ruddock,
00:53will back an opponent of the party he's represented for decades.
00:57I don't think local government decisions lend themselves to party political decision making.
01:03After being rolled at pre-selection,
01:05the Liberal veteran is supporting Deputy Mayor Nathan Tilbury,
01:08who left the party to run as an independent.
01:11The sorts of development that we've been talked about within the Liberal team,
01:14I didn't think were appropriate.
01:16As the Liberals lick their wounds,
01:18other parties are licking their lips.
01:20You might have people who wouldn't otherwise be a credible, serious chance of getting elected,
01:25who might do well.
01:26The Libertarian Party, who used to be called the Liberal Democrats,
01:29have run a lot of candidates.
01:31Blue Mountains Council has three Liberals, but none on the ballot.
01:35And now the Greens are eyeing their seats.
01:38We've got quite a lot in common with Liberal voters,
01:41and the Liberals did support quite a few things that we put up to Council.
01:46It's a bad time for the Liberal Party to be without a State Director.
01:49The role is needed to oversee a pre-selection contest tomorrow
01:53for October's by-election in Epping,
01:55the seat vacated by former Premier Dominic Perrottet.
01:58Late today, Party Affairs Manager Wilson Chessel
02:01was appointed to fill the role for the next ten days,
02:04as the hunt for a replacement takes place.
02:06In the end, on the northern beaches,
02:08there was one Liberal who did wash up on the ballot.
02:11Mandeep Singh was number two on the ticket for Pittwater Ward.
02:14He lodged his own nomination with the Electoral Commission,
02:17unaware it was the Party's job.
02:19A lucky mistake in a comedy of errors.