Victorian ocotogenerians dumped from committee running NSW Liberal party but federal intervention continues

The former New South Wales premier Nick Greiner will chair a new committee in charge of the state Liberal division after a federal takeover was extended for nine months.
The Liberal party's federal executive voted on Tuesday to install the new body, which will replace a three-person panel announced in September 2024 following a council elections bungle.
Two former committee members – Victorian Liberal octogenerians Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston – have been dumped but the third former member, ex-NSW state MP Peta Seaton, will serve on Griener's new seven-person panel.
The other members are Jane Buncle, Mark Baillie, Peter O'Hanlon, James Owen and Berenice Walker.
The federal executive on Tuesday also signed off on who would lead two separate reviews following the May election – one standard post-election review and another deeper dive into the future of the party.
The Liberal party's peak administrative body announced the intervention into the NSW branch last year after the local government election nominations fiasco, installing an administrative committee to run the division for 10 months.
Stockdale, Alston and Seaton were charged with reviewing the party's constitution, overhauling the administrative machinery and helping to conduct the federal election campaign.
The committee's term was due to expire on 30 June, creating an early test for the new federal Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, as the competing factions in her home state wrangled over the division's future.
The federal executive had the option of extending the three-person committee's term or ending the intervention and handing control back to the NSW executive.
But a third option emerged in recent weeks, in which a federal-backed committee would remain, but the current members would be replaced with NSW figures.
Sign up to Morning Mail
Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
The internal push to replace the committee members gathered momentum after 80-year-old Stockdale said Liberal women were 'sufficiently assertive' and perhaps male candidates needed a leg up.
The new seven-member committee will be in place until the end of March 2026.
The Liberals went backwards in NSW at the 3 May federal election, losing Bradfield, Banks and Hughes and failing to win any of its target seats.
It contributed to the worst result in the Liberal party's 80-year history, with the Coalition reduced to just 43 lower house seats in the next parliament.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Daily Mail​

4 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

Former SAS soldier turned MP is praised for his extraordinary response to anti-war heckler slamming Australia's support of Iran strikes

Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie has been commended for his response to a heckler who interrupted his speech on the US bomb strikes in the Middle East. The 42-year-old former military commander on Sunday said the Coalition backed the strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran, carried out by the Trump administration overnight. 'We do support the United Sates, and the Albanese government should be supporting the United States as well,' Hastie said at a press conference. Later in the speech, Hastie said the Coalition stood in solidarity with the Iranian people, but criticised the country's authoritarian regime as 'sponsoring terrorism'. A protestor in the crowd was then picked up on news microphones yelling, 'Oh come on, the United States of America is the most terrorist country in the world'. Other crowd members turned on the woman and told her to keep quiet. Hastie, however, swiftly stepped in and appeared to encourage the interruption. 'It's a free country,' he told the crowd. 'She's allowed to say what she likes.' Footage of the moment quickly spread online, where the Liberal MP for Canning was praised by viewers for his response to the woman's protest. '(He was) level-headed, well-spoken,' one person said. Another agreed, saying they thought Hastie appeared 'very tolerant and professional with the protester'. 'He's seen the worst of the worst,' a third wrote, referencing Hastie's time as a troop commander in the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), 'so one protester matters little'. In his speech, Hastie declared support the US strikes, describing them as justified in the current security climate. 'We do not want war, but we believe this was a necessary action to take by the United States military. 'President (Donald) Trump gave the offer of negotiations and over the last two days, the Iranians have not taken up that offer. 'So the coalition stands in solidarity with the Iranian people. We regret the loss of life in Iran and Israel and we hope for a peaceful settlement going forward.' He also criticised the Albanese government's stance on the conflict. 'I think they've been far too ambiguous,' he said. 'The United States is a close ally. The United States has a key role in reestablishing order and peace in the Middle East. 'Iran by contrast is a regime that sponsors terrorism. It sponsored Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. It's taken actions against Israel.' The United States launched air strikes on three nuclear facilities inside Iran over the weekend. The attacks marked a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel. President Donald Trump confirmed the US launched air strikes on three nuclear facilities inside Iran on Sunday morning (Australian time). The strikes came after years of hostility between Iran and Israel intensified into open aerial conflict earlier this month. Iranian officials said the facilities hit were at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – key sites in the country's nuclear program. Commentators on international law and the Greens criticised the strikes as illegal under international law. A spokesman for the Albanese government urged 'de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.' 'We note the US President's statement that now is the time for peace,' a statement read.

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

All I wanted was to visit my friends in the US... but I was detained for 12 hours and sent back to Australia

An Australian writer has claimed he was turned away from the US border after being grilled on his views on the Gaza conflict and articles he wrote about pro-Palestinian protests. Alistair Kitchen, 33, boarded a flight from Melbourne to New York to visit friends on June 12 when he was pulled to one side by a Customs and Border Protection officer during a layover in Los Angeles. He was detained for 12 hours at Los Angeles International Airport before being put on a flight back to Melbourne. Mr Kitchen said he was refused entry to the US because of his political beliefs, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since said this is 'unequivocally false'. The writer lived in the US for six years before moving back home to Castlemaine, in regional Victoria, last year, and between 2022 and 2024 he studied at Columbia University. Mr Kitchen claimed a customs officer told him he was being detained because of his views on the pro-Palestinian rallies that took place on campus at the New York university last year. 'I was interrogated about my beliefs on the crisis in Gaza. I told him what I believe: that the war is a tragedy in which all parties have blood on their hands, but which can and must come to an immediate end,' he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald. 'One party is dominant, and that party can end the death and destruction today.' Mr Kitchen recalled being asked to provide the officer with his phone passcode, which he did, and later admitted he regrets. The content of his phone is said to have been downloaded by border agents, who subsequently found evidence of prior drug use. He was told he had not declared drug use on his Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form, was taken to immigration detention and put on a flight home. Mr Kitchen said he told the agents he had consumed drugs before in New York, where marijuana is legal, and that he had bought weed at dispensaries in the US. His phone was not returned to him until he landed back on Australian soil. 'The individual in question was denied entry because he gave false information on his [Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) application] regarding drug use,' a DHS spokesperson told ABC News. DHS did not specifically deny Mr Kitchen was asked about the Israel-Gaza conflict, but said the US, under President Donald Trump, had the 'most secure border' in American history. The spokesperson said lawful travellers 'have nothing to fear' from measures intended to protect the US's security. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) warned Australian travellers that entry requirements into the US were 'strict'. 'US authorities have broad powers to decide if you're eligible to enter and may determine that you are inadmissible for any reason under US law,' DFAT's Smarttraveller website reads. 'Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry. 'You can be refused entry if you provide false information or can't satisfy the officials you're visiting for a valid reason.'

Daily Mail​

8 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

High-profile Aussie lawyer slams US with extraordinary comparison after 'very successful attack' on three Iranian nuclear sites

A prominent Sydney lawyer has accused Israel and the United States of being the 'Nazis' of the modern era following America's bombing of Iran. Adam Houda shared a damning tweet on Sunday morning, just minutes after US President Donald Trump announced the 'very successful attack' on three Iranian nuclear sites. 'Here we go. The USA has just entered the war. The Israel-USA alliance are the Nazis of our times. Believe it,' Mr Houda wrote. Trump revealed the US had struck the three nuclear sites - Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan - through social media, explicitly aligning himself with Israel. 'Congratulations to our great American warriors,' Trump wrote. 'There is not another military in the world that could have done this. Now is the time for peace.' Prior to Trump's announcement, Australian officials across the political spectrum had voiced concern about the rapidly intensifying situation. 'We are worried about the prospect for escalation here and this entering into some wider kind of conflict,' Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told Sky News. 'We've been urging dialogue and diplomacy and we continue to do that now.' At least 430 people have been killed and another 3,500 injured in Iran, according to Iranian media outlet Nour New, since Israel's bombing began at 3.30am on the morning of Friday 13th, local time. Local Israeli authorities have reported 24 civilian deaths and almost 1,300 injuries. Though he hoped Iran would negotiate and surrender its nuclear program, opposition spokesman for home affairs Andrew Hastie predicted a strike would occur, mere minutes before the US president made his announcement. 'I suspect diplomacy is probably going to fail here and we're going to see a strike of some sort,' he told ABC's Insiders. 'The next two weeks is going to be tough for innocent people in Israel and Iran who are caught in the middle of this war.' The federal government has repeatedly insisted Australia is not a central player in the conflict, which was triggered in mid June when the Israeli military launched attacks on Iran in what it claimed was a bid to wipe out Iran's nuclear program. Australia has deployed defence assets to the region to assist in evacuation efforts, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong repeatedly maintaining they are not there to engage in combat. Hastie, a former Special Air Service Regiment troop commander during the war in Afghanistan, said he would be reluctant to send in troops and called for Australia to more clearly define its alliance with the US. 'I think we need to talk about operationalising the alliance - building guardrails for combat operations and of course, defining our sovereignty,' he said. 'We're not just a vassal state, we're an ally and a partner.' Marles maintained Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile program was 'most definitely a threat' to the peace and stability of the world, while also expressing concern about the conflict's escalation. 'We recognise Israel's right to defend itself and we very much acknowledge the risk that the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program represents,' he said. But now that it appears the dominoes have begun to fall, the world could soon have to reckon with the consequences, Hastie warned. 'I think it's very dangerous and risky,' he said. 'We could see regime change, we could see a collapse of the Iranian regime, we'd see large-scale migration and refugees across the world, but particularly Europe.' About 2,600 Australians in Iran are seeking assisted departures from the region, alongside about 1,200 in Israel, as the government urges travellers not to venture to either nation. Staff from the Department of Foreign Affairs have evacuated the Tehran embassy and are helping Australians leave through the border in Azerbaijan. Some Australians have already left through land crossings, but the government is also poised to help citizens leave once the airspace over both nations reopens.