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NSW Liberal President Jason Falinski will bring the party’s factional warlords together in a bid to implement significant reforms to modernise and improve the performance of the “dysfunctional” state executive.
The confidential email sent to party powerbrokers on Monday afternoon proposed eight “principles” the former federal MP is hoping to discuss, with an eye on an “interim set of measures” to be passed at the party’s annual general meeting in February.
NSW Liberal President Jason Falinski emailed party powerbrokers seeking to discuss major reforms of the party.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The powerbrokers included in the initial email obtained by the Herald are moderates Chris Rath, James Wallace and Mark Coure, conservatives Kevin Connolly and Geoff Pearson, and centre-right representative Sarah Richards.
“I am writing to you as we need to bring a group together in order to find a pathway forward on party reform,” Falinski wrote, proposing an initial conversation tonight via Teams.
The interim measures proposed include drastically cutting the size of the party’s constitution from 277 to 30 pages; reducing the party’s state executive from an unwieldy 27 representatives to 10; and introducing a new “conflict of interest and standards of behaviour” for state executive members, senior conference and branch office holders.
“The constitution should be reduced to a principles-based document which sets out key requirements for management of our Party. The constitution should NOT contain restrictive terms detailing processes which would be better left to be determined by the State Director,” he wrote.
Other proposed reforms include reducing the threshold for “special powers”, the ability for state executive to intervene in matters, from 90 per cent of state executive members to 60 per cent, while expanding the scope of reasons for intervention.
“As Roger Corbett says, if he had a 90 per cent threshold for special resolutions then Woolworths would be broke. This is also supported by the Greiner report,” Falinski said.
The email follows the Liberals’ state election review, led by former premier Nick Greiner and former NSW MP Peta Seaton, which identified a number of failings within the party and apportioned significant blame on the “dysfunction” of the party’s state executive.
In December last year, an effort by then-premier Dominic Perrottet to install more women into the upper house at the expense of incumbent male conservatives descended into acrimony, with the vote on state executive delayed for two days as senior powerbrokers rushed to secure the votes.
A state election review apportioned significant blame for the defeat on the “dysfunction” of the party’s state executive.Credit: James Brickwood
Liberal Party sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to internal rules preventing party matters being discussed publicly with the media, said the initial proposals were unlikely to all be presented at the AGM, saying factional distrust could result in more incremental reforms.
Others said Falinski’s email would ignite fury among branch members, particularly the proposal to create new branches, which they said would be interpreted as an effort to dilute power among certain factions.
The proposed reforms have been discussed within Liberal Party circles since internecine warfare broke out during the 2022 federal election, as conservatives rejected efforts by then-prime minister Scott Morrison and key factional ally Alex Hawke to impose electoral candidates.
After being frustrated for months by a recalcitrant core of resistance, Morrison sought the nuclear option, inviting an unprecedented federal intervention on his own division. The effort ultimately wound up in the High Court, as then Liberal member Matthew Camenzuli sought an injunction to prevent the prime minister’s 12 candidates and MPs from being installed.
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