(Image: Tom Red/Private Media)

In just three days the NSW division of the Liberal Party’s executive committee could cease to exist. Over the last few months, a factional civil war has engulfed the party’s state division, leaving the fate of three government MPs in limbo and no candidates preselected in must-win seats.

Now the party’s immediate future lies in the hands of the NSW Supreme Court, which is set to essentially decide whether Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the party’s federal executive can take over the division and install their own favoured candidates.

So what the hell is going on and why are the Liberals in NSW so determined to fight each other in court just months out from a federal election?

The current situation

As Crikey reported previously, the current situation has its roots in a long-simmering, arcane factional dispute between the right, the moderates and the centre-right. The latter, represented by Morrison and his factional consigliere, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, have been marginalised in NSW by a loose alliance between the mods and the right.

With all that going on in the background, key preselections were never completed. Factional rivals allege Hawke and Morrison had stalled the process in order to get the federal executive to take over the branch and install favoured candidates. 

But they had another reason to push for a federal takeover. Hawke, along with Environment Minister Sussan Ley and moderate powerbroker Trent Zimmerman, face preselections from the right. Ley is particularly vulnerable. Morrison wants to keep his MPs, while the right is flexing. 

The stalemate intensified after a tense meeting last week. Morrison gave the state division 10 days to endorse his MPs or face federal takeover. A vote to endorse them succeeded 15-4, falling short of the requirement of a 90% majority needed to avoid preselection.

There was another problem. According to legal advice provided by the state executive, the committee would cease to function when its members’ terms expired next Monday, because an annual general meeting to reelect them hadn’t been held. The federal executive refused to extend the state executive’s committee. That means come next Monday it could intervene and take over, giving Morrison a chance to save his MPs and install preferred candidates.

Rival advice, from the right faction, disputed this, and that’s how things ended up in court.

The legal battle

Matthew Camenzuli, a conservative right factional heavy and urban member of the state executive from Western Sydney, brought court proceedings against NSW state president (and Howard-era attorney-general) Philip Ruddock, Hawke and federal president John Olsen, essentially intended to block federal intervention.

The dispute effectively turns on whether the division can continue to operate after next Monday.

This isn’t the first time Camenzuli — whose cousin Charles Camenzuli is hoping to win preselection for Parramatta — has lawyered up over an obscure factional dispute. Last year he spent $130,000 of his own money effectively helping the state executive see off a legal challenge brought by centre-right-aligned Liberal councillors in Western Sydney over candidate nominations in local elections.

In both instances Camenzuli retained Scott Robertson, who was counsel-assisting at the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings into Gladys Berejiklian. In Tuesday’s hearing before the NSW Supreme Court, things got strange. Hawke couldn’t be found by Robertson’s solicitors. 

“I can only assume that his choice is not to participate in any way, shape or form in the proceedings,” Judge John Sackar said.

The NSW division’s barrister, Robert Newlinds, who wrote the legal advice suggesting the executive would expire by next Tuesday, suggested Ruddock — a defendant in the case — actually wanted to lose.

In court yesterday, Camenzuli’s lawyers said the legal advice which supported the executive being wound up next Monday would cause “considerable violence” to the party’s constitution. A ruling is expected on Monday.

Meanwhile, conservative NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said she backed Camenzuli’s court case as a means of resolving the issue. Hers is one of many preselections still in doubt.

So are the key seats of Hughes, Dobell, Eden-Monaro, Parramatta, Bennelong and Warringah. All winnable for the Liberals, if only they had candidates. But that’s still some way off.