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."…...
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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