NSW Liberal Party director Richard Shields sacked

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The director of the NSW Liberals has been sacked, after the party failed to meet the deadline for submitting nominations for up to 140 candidates for local government elections.

Transcript

00:00It did all come off the back of that last-minute emergency meeting of the party's executive.

00:07They were looking to address the failure, as what they said about the Director Richard

00:11Shields, to ensure the lodgement of candidate documents for the upcoming local elections

00:17happening next month.

00:19That meeting did end poorly for the Director, a statement afterwards confirming that he

00:25had been sacked.

00:26This statement came from Don Harwin, the President of the State's Liberal Division, releasing

00:31that statement shortly after.

00:33In it, he said,

00:34This failure to meet such a fundamental responsibility has rendered his position untenable.

00:40As a result, the State Executive has resolved to terminate the State Director's employment

00:45with immediate effect.

00:47So a massive decision coming out of that meeting last night.

00:50But of course, the termination, it didn't come without a bit of furor.

00:54Speaking before the meeting, Richard Shields denied responsibility.

00:57He said he had been looking to the federal election, and he actually said that the responsibility

01:03for the local election had fallen on Don Harwin's shoulder.

01:07He had taken on that responsibility.

01:10At that time, Mr Shields also had declined to resign, saying the party should get the

01:14full facts first.

01:16Meanwhile, we know that anger is continuing to grow amongst the Liberal Party membership.

01:20A letter was sent to state MPs yesterday from the leader, Mark Speakman.

01:25In it, he called it probably the worst act of mismanagement in the party's history.

01:30He was also among the calls for Mr Shields to resign yesterday.

01:36So Charlie, what is the spread?

01:38Who does this affect?

01:39What's the spread of misnominations?

01:43Well that is continuing to become clear, and we do have a better idea of that today, since

01:47the ballots were made public yesterday.

01:51It's assumed about 136 candidates could be missing out on running for local government

01:57next month.

01:5917 councils in Sydney and surrounds, including much of the northern areas of Sydney, they're

02:04set to be without a Liberal candidate at this election, with many others in Sydney also

02:10set to be where some people have been nominated and others have missed out.

02:16So lots of councils will be running without a single candidate or without a requisite

02:21number of candidates from the Liberal Party.

02:24One election analyst has told the ABC this could mean that the Liberals miss out on more

02:28than 50 seats at next month's elections.

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