Tuesday 22 September 2020

Orara Valley branch of NSW National Party dissolved to protect sitting Nats MLA for Coffs Harbour



The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September 2020:

The NSW Nationals have been accused of branch-stacking and then dissolving a rural branch after members raised questions about the preselection process of a state MP.

The MP, Gurmesh Singh, was selected at a November 2018 meeting for the seat of Coffs Harbour. But office holders of one of the seat's two branches raised doubts about the voting process and his eligibility.

Members of the Orara Valley branch, who had raised the questions, say they turned up to their annual general meeting in July 2019 only to find their numbers had suddenly swelled by almost double.

The newcomers included Andrew Fraser, Mr Singh's predecessor as MP for Coffs Harbour and currently chairman of NSW Nationals. They intervened to spill existing office holders before the meeting ended in chaos.

"We wondered just what the hell had gone on," Barry Lee, the branch's then vice chairman, told The Sun-Herald at his house in Bonville, near Coffs. "We were not experts at fighting these kinds of battles."

After months of emails and letters to party headquarters, then state director Ross Cadell told the members on January 31 – his final day in the role – that Orara was "no longer [a] constitutionally formed branch", effectively dissolving it.....

The local party spat has the potential to create wider ripples for the NSW Nationals, who recently threatened to take down the government of Premier Gladys Berejiklian over koala planning laws they said undermined farmers' rights to clear land as they see fit.

One of the first MPs to complain about the koala guidelines was Mr Singh, who, according to a Channel Seven report, told Planning Minister Rob Stokes that his family's properties could be affected.

Mr Singh told The Sun-Herald he had spoken to Mr Stokes "about various issues" involving the koala planning policy……

Mr Singh referred all questions about his eligibility to run as a Nationals candidate at the 2019 election to the state's central organisation. Mr Singh declined to say whether he had been a member for the requisite six months prior to the election, nor whether he had received a waiver from the party's organisation as an alternative.

The Sun-Herald also asked Mr Fraser for comment about why he changed branches from Coffs to the Orara Valley, and whether his transfer had been approved by the local branch three months before he voted at the July meeting.

Mr Fraser has told the local newspaper he had property in the Orara Valley, making him eligible to switch branches.

Documents seen by the The Sun-Herald show the small branch's numbers swelled from 12 to 23 as a result of those transfers. Mr Cadell, who now works as a lobbyist at Newcastle Ports, defended the party's actions in closing down the Orara branch.

"The rules were entirely followed," he said. "The only problem was they didn't like the rules. It was a large amount of people [who switched] but it is quite regular for people to transfer between branches."

Members, though, describe being bewildered by the sudden interest in their branch from party heavyweights, with one saying: "We abhor branch stacking within the Labor Party but we witnessed it ourselves ... I couldn't believe it."…...

Gurmesh Singh is a blueberry and macadamia nut farmer as well as the NSW Nationals MLA for Coffs Harbour since the March 2019 state election.

He opposed amendments to the NSW Water Act aimed at increasing transparency concerning ownership of water licenses.

Singh along with Chris Gulaptis wwas strongly behind National Party Leader and  NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, as he attempted to remove SEPP protections for koalas and koala habitat.

Singh also supports his electorate Coffs Harbour as the site for any future nuclear power station.

It is also alleged that he attempted to quash a Coffs Harbour City Council move to request state and federal funding during the pandemic - apparently even going so far as to enlist the assistance of the Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock in an attempt to block a specific project.

The Oz Group Co-op Ltd of which Singh was then chair and founding director received $1 million in federal government funding in February 2018 - the same year he stood for National Party preselection. 

There have been a number of  allegations of conflicts of interest on Singh's part since he entered the NSW Parliament.

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