The Liberal Party of Australia continues to rip itself apart ahead of the May 2022 federal general election

 

On 5 April 2022 the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division) Executive was composed of: State President Philip Ruddock, State Director (in attendance) Chris Stone, Urban Vice-Presidents Penny George, Country and Regional Vice-Presidents Tobias Lehmann & Aileen MacDonald Female Vice-President Mary-Lou Jarvis, Young Liberal President De Yi Wu, Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Party Scott Morrison MP (and from time to time his representative Alex Hawke MP), Leader of the State Parliamentary Party Dominic Perrottet MP, Urban Representatives James Wallace, Matthew Hana, Chantelle Fornari-Orsmond, Martin Zaiter, Sally Betts, Zac Miles, Michelle Byrne, Sammy Elmir & Jacqui Munro (replacing Matthew Camenzuli who was expelled from the Liberal Party on or about 6 April 2022 for bringing the legal action, Camenzuli v Morrison), Country Representatives Michelle Bishop, Patrick Doherty, Mark Croxford, James Owen, Chair of Convention Committee and Director of Policy Engagement Alex Dore and Treasurer Mark Baillie.

A battle had been brewing for some time between the Federal Liberal Party Executive, the NSW Liberal Party Executive and state local party branches over the 2018 changes to the NSW Division Constitution which included the right to state branch plebiscites. These changes also allowed the federal leader of the Liberal Party a guaranteed seat on the executive.

The first hint of factional fighting and preselection battles came to light in the local government arena with Diaz v Ruddock; Attie v Ruddock and Zaiter v Ruddock in July 2021.

The open stoush widened and had developed by February 2022 into Camenzuli v Hawke. Followed by Morrison & Ors v Camenzuli & Ors; Attorney-General of the Commonwealth v Camenzuli & Ors, heard by the High Court of Australia in March 2022. The High Court remitted the case to its jurisdiction and then promptly remitted it back to NSW Court of Appeal – given that no difficulty was found to exist in the hearing schedule in the state court.

On 5 April 2022 in Camenzuli v Morrison the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, ruled that the Federal Liberal Party Executive had the power to intervene in the NSW Division’s candidate preselection process and take control of the selection of candidates.

The 12 electorates in question being Farrer, Mitchell, North Sydney, Hughes, Parramatta, Fowler, Grayndler, Newcastle, Warringah, Greenway, Eden-Monaro and McMahon. Candidate selection and endorsement was by a three person federal committee comprising Scott Morrison, Alex Hawke and Trent Zimmerman and occurred ahead of the 5 April judgment.

Subsequent to the 5 April judgment Morrison ordered the expulsion of Matthew Camenzuli from the Liberal Party. Mr. Camenzuli is appealing this expulsion.

Legal proceedings in the matter of the usurped state candidate preselection process has not gone away however.

In MATTHEW CAMENZULI v THE HON. SCOTT MORRISON MP First Respondent, CHRISTINE McDIVEN AM Second Respondent, THE HON. DOMINIC PERROTTET MP Third Respondent, THE HON. ALEX HAWKE MP Fourth Respondent, THE HON. SUSSAN LEY MP Fifth Respondent, TRENT ZIMMERMAN MP Sixth Respondent, THE HON. PHILIP RUDDOCK AO Seventh Respondent, THE HON. JOHN OLSEN AO Eighth Respondent on 7 April 2022 the High Court of Australia decided the timetable for hearing of oral arguments in this Special Leave To Appeal Application, commencing 4pm on Friday 8 April 2022.

Apparently Morrison et al intend to argue that Camenzuli no longer has standing before the Court as he is not now a member of the Liberal Party and will ask that the application be dismissed. 

Scott Morrison's dysfunctional need to control every aspect of the Liberal Party of Australia is ripping this 77 year-old conservative political party apart in a very public manner.

Another win for local community in the Battle for the Bylong Valley, NSW

 

Locals opposed the development of a the mine.(ABC News: Liv Casben)

The fight to stop a multinational mining company from devouring the Bylong Valley in New South Wales began way back in 2010.

By 2015 Korean energy giant KEPCO held 7,385 hectares of freehold land in the valley for its proposed thermal coal mine.

In 2017 that landholding had grown to more than 13,000 hectares of Bylong Valley land. At that time the entire mining project was expected by KEPCO to directly impact/”disturb” est. 2,874.7 hectares within the 700 sq. km Bylong River catchment area.

IMAGE: The Land, 1 August 2017

Good agricultural land was being subsumed by this proposed mine and vital water resources threatened.

The Bylong Valley community and its supporters have fought on through a number of jurisdictions for the last ten years.

This is the latest legal success farmers & other residents from the area have achieved…….

On 14 September 2021 the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal dismissed the KEPCO Bylong Australia Pty Ltd appeal of a Land and Environment Court of NSW judgment.

KEPCO was unsuccessful with respect to each of the five ground of appeal against the primary judge’s dismissal of its challenge to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) decision and was ordered to pay the costs of the active respondent, Bylong Valley Protection Alliance Inc.

KEPCO can of course seek special permission to appeal to the High Court of Australia and, it seems likely that mindlessly pro-mining NSW Deputy Premier & Nationals MLA for Monaro John Barilaro will encourage such an action.

However, this 14 September Court of Appeal judgment was unanimous and that gives cause for comfort.

ABC News, 14 September 2021, excerpt:

Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA) president Phillip Kennedy hopes the decision will allow the community to rebuild itself.

"I'd really like to see this valley that's been purchased by Kepco under the pretense of a proposed coal mine 10 years ago when they started [to be given back]," he said.

"We would like to ask the South Korean government to release that land back, to allow the mums and dads and the farmers of Australia to come here and to bring it back to what it once was."

The appeal zeroed in on the interpretation of parts of environmental policy and whether or not the IPC's refusal was legally sound.

But today's verdict backed the IPC's judgement that the project would cause "long lasting environmental, agricultural and heritage impacts"….

Bylong Valley, NSW
IMAGE: ABC News, 17 April 2019