Hapless and shameless NSW Liberal Party resorts to Trump-like denialism and blame-shifting

A reasonable observer might have thought that the Liberal Party’s failure to submit nomination forms for up to 140 NSW local government candidates would be about as bad as it gets. But no: the geniuses running the party have spent the past three days proving rock bottom may still be some way off.

After news broke that the party had failed to meet the deadline to nominate candidates in 16 councils for next month’s local government elections, an unedifying blame game erupted between NSW Liberal Party president Don Harwin and state director Richard Shields. The latter was sacked on Thursday night; it is only a matter of time before Harwin goes, too.

Reeling from the colossal stuff-up, the Liberal Party spent the weekend seeking to blame the NSW Electoral Commission for the debacle and threatened to take the agency to court unless it agreed to a one-week extension to nominate candidates.

The acting commissioner came back on Saturday and said “no”: the only logical answer given party leaders had spent days venting their spleen about how this disaster was entirely self-inflicted. Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said it best when he told reporters last week: “Our party administration has let the candidates, the party members and the general public down. This is a debacle. There’s no other way to describe it.” Indeed.

However, the Liberals have opted for a legal challenge in the NSW Supreme Court, claiming the electoral commission made an error by issuing five days of formal notice that nominations were about to close instead of the usual seven.

“The integrity of the 2024 local government elections depends on the commission’s willingness to correct its mistake and ensure that the integrity of the democratic process is maintained,” Harwin said in a statement.

The Liberals are clutching at straws. While the electoral commission may have given two days less formal notice on its website that nominations were about to close, it is absurd to suggest the Liberal Party had not known for months what the closing date was. In fact, the nomination date was first revealed in October 2023. It has since been communicated repeatedly online, via print and social media, and directly to political parties.

The idea that the Liberal Party would take up valuable court time to remedy its own amateur-hour head office operation is an insult to taxpayers and voters. The Liberal Party’s weekend statements were Donald Trump-like in their denialism and blame-shifting.

Things also went from bad to sad on Saturday night when Liberal MP James Griffin begged the NSW premier to help the Liberals out.

“Chris Minns, I believe, is a man of principle,” Griffin wrote on X. “As premier, he should do the right thing and support Liberals being allowed to stand as candidates for council elections. Don’t be afraid of competition. Our democracy is only as good as the competition of ideas on offer.”

The post was desperate and embarrassing. How on earth is this Labor’s problem to fix? And does anyone really believe the Liberal Party would interfere in the independent electoral process to help out Labor had Sussex Street stuffed up its nominating process?

Minns quite rightly rejected Griffin’s suggestion, noting the Liberals had known for years that council elections would be held on September 14, and that hundreds of other candidates had managed to nominate before the deadline.

Speakman and other parliamentary party members need to end this farce right now. They should tell Harwin to resign, end the pathetic talk of Supreme Court action and learn the lessons of this disaster for future elections.

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