Grattan: Can NSW Libs get their groove back?The Bradfield preselection, won by Paul Fletcher, showed a strong field of NSW Liberal contenders. Can it help spark a renewal in the state branch? wonders Michelle Grattan.
NSW Liberal Party
Bradfield, the land of true maverick conservatives
All 20 candidates in this Saturday’s Bradfield preselection must be pondering one major question: exactly what do local Liberal Party preselectors in a safe seat look for in a candidate?
Bradfield preselection shows NSW Libs have changed
At this Saturday’s Bradfield preselection at the Hornsby RSL, one of the front runners will be a conservative who also happens to be openly gay, although Irfan Yusuf doubts that he’ll be wearing a skivvy.
Libs get their mojo back
Malcolm Turnbull now has the power to hand pick MP candidates, which will keep messy NSW factions in line. The Liberals are starting to look electable again, writes Glenn Milne.
No comment for NSW Liberal twits
Want to tweet your office politics? Then don’t join the NSW Liberals, who’ve just passed new policy banning members from using blogs or social networking sites to make public statements about the party.
Right battles over Libs power changes
Members of the NSW Right faction are expected to oppose the new powers of preselection given to Liberal leaders, after the messy treatment of Michael Towke in the federal seat of Cook.
Barry O’Farrell sticks his neck out on donations reform
Barry O’Farrell has stuck his neck out on political donations reform, lobbyist activities and election expenditure in an attempt to make ground on Premier Rees. But his own political fundraising is under question, writes Lee Rhiannon.
NSW Libs at loggerheads as intra-factional action heats up
The NSW Liberals’ religious right want to roll back secularism. But if they do that, hey’ll effectively make the Party unelectable. They’ll also be answering Nathan Rees’ prayers.
Have NSW political donors failed to disclose donations?
A number of NSW political donors may have failed to disclose the full extent of their political donations, a comparison of NSW and Commonwealth electoral disclosure data shows.
Politics in Sydney’s barmiest borough: Rockdale
While Liberal and Labor councillors are at each other’s throats all over NSW, not so in Rockdale, where they work hand-in-glove.
Trouble is that Turnbull’s dead wood is right
Malcolm Turnbull didn’t become a multimillionaire by being a stranger to big business, writes Irfan Yusuf.
Currawong Beach, Labor and the laps of developers
What a spectacle: the conservatives and arch-conservatives voting with the Greens to protect the Unions NSW-owned holiday venue from Labor-backed developers, writes Alex Mitchell.
NSW Libs give Premier Rees a glimmer of hope
Before the ALP coffin is rolled into the furnaces there is a tiny sliver of hope for Premier Nathan Rees – the NSW division of the Liberal Party, writes Alex Mitchell.
Baseball bats ready at four NSW by-elections
Next Saturday’s four by-elections in NSW will show the electoral toxicity of the Labor Government, writes Alex Mitchell.
Abjorensen: The Liberals fail to understand and fail to learn
As usual, the Liberal Party is in disarray after losing an election, writes Norman Abjorensen.
Not the first time ALP candidates have been “smeared” with Islam
If there’s one person who won’t be surprised at senior Liberal Party figures being caught red-handed distributing allegedly Islamic material in a marginal Western Sydney seat, it is former ALP candidate for Greenway Ed Husic, writes Irfan Yusuf.
Ala Akba, as they say in the NSW Liberal party
There are few certainties in politics but it is odds-on that the NSW Liberal Party director Graham Jaeschke won’t be keeping his job after the federal election. On his watch, the NSW Liberal Party has failed to tame the far right fundamentalist Christian faction which has been encouraged during Prime Minister John Howard’s 11-year term […]
Quiz: Which election night party is that?
Angry, distraught people yelling abuse at TV broadcast of Howard victory speech. Is it a) Kooyong b) Higgins c) Australian DF Barracks Mess room, Iraq d) Yarralumla. Guy Rundle puts you to the test.
Will Howard need to switch to a safe seat?
In a fiery Question Time yesterday, the PM declared: “I can beat the Leader of the Opposition without resort to smears.” On a federal level, that may well be true. But even if this happens, the question remains: can John Howard defeat Maxine McKew?
Who does Dr Phelps really represent?
The right-wing extremists are not just in the NSW Liberal Party, they have made it to the centre. And the revelations yesterday of Federal minister Gary Nairn’s chief of staff, Peter Phelps, heckling a Labor candidate at a public meeting, have brought that further out into the open.
An election timing hint?
You can read what you like into this email distributed to the NSW Liberal Party faithful yesterday:
Liberal factional schism is the Towke of the town
Another day, another set of detailed accounts of factional schism in the Sydney branches of the Liberal Party arrives in the Crikey email. Here are the latest offerings. We don’t know who sends them and can only guess at the agendas in play, but a pattern is emerging: bitter internal chaos eagerly discussed.
NSW Libs: A goose well cooked
There’s continued speculation in the NSW Liberal Party over who will actually end up as the candidate for the should-be safe seat of Cook.
