- Party error sees 100 candidates miss Australia election
- This “monumental stuff-up” is expected to cost the party around 50 council seats
- Long-serving politicians will lose their positions, and voters in eight councils won’t have a single Liberal candidate to choose from
- State party director cited “limited resources” as the reason for the failure
Party error sees 100 candidates miss Australia election
Over 100 Liberal Party candidates in New South Wales (NSW) will be unable to run for council elections due to a missed nomination deadline. This “monumental stuff-up” is expected to cost the party around 50 council seats, according to top election analysts.
As a result, several long-serving politicians will lose their positions, and voters in eight councils won’t have a single Liberal candidate to choose from.
State party director Richard Shields apologised, citing “limited resources” as the reason for the failure. Mark Speakman, the party’s state parliamentary leader, called the incident “probably the worst act of mismanagement” in the party’s history and has asked Shields to step down.
Election analyst Ben Raue noted that the party is 136 candidates short of a full ticket, including 38 sitting councillors who missed the ballot.
The saga has sent the NSW Liberal Party into crisis, with senior Liberal MPs lining up to express their outrage.
Deputy parliamentary leader Natalie Ward told radio station 2GB she is furious over the “monumental stuff-up”, while Anthony Roberts told the ABC it was “abysmal”.
“It’s absolutely catastrophic, I’ve never seen – in my 30 years of public life – anything so bad,” he said.
In a statement on Wednesday Mr Shields said: “On behalf of the secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal-endorsed councillors that were not nominated and to the party membership more broadly.”