Gilmore Ann Sudmalis has seen off a potential challenge to her candidacy after being unanimously endorsed at a meeting of the Gilmore Federal Electoral Conference at Worrigee House on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The conference meeting was made up of office bearers from branches within the Gilmore electorate.
The emphatic endorsement came after the intervention of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who sought to quell disharmony in the local Liberal Party.
That disharmony was brought to a head in recent weeks after it emerged Mrs Sudmalis had seconded a strongly worded motion condemning the Baird government’s council merger plans at a public meeting.
Also contributing to party disquiet was the revelation Mrs Sudmalis had signed a petition vowing to vote against the NSW Liberal government if merger plans went ahead.
A senior Liberal anonymously rounded on Mrs Sudmalis when the petition story emerged, saying she had “signed her own death warrant”.
“Here we’ve got a federal member of parliament who votes for things she doesn’t understand and signs things she hasn’t read; that’s pretty damning,” the source said.
Mrs Sudmalis said she signed the petition thinking it was an attendance record and wrote to NSW Premier Mike Baird explaining the error and undertaking to have her name removed.
It has emerged several other prominent local Liberals also signed the petition, including Shoalhaven Mayor Joanna Gash.
Also thinking the petition was an attendance record, Cr Gash has since had her name struck off. Cr Andrew Guile, who also signed the petition, told Fairfax Media he was within his rights.
“As an independent councillor I am not bound by the same rules as the endorsed candidate and Member for Gilmore,” he said.
Notably absent from the FEC meeting were members of the Berry branch of the party, which with 70 members is one of the largest in the Gilmore electorate.
There were three abstentions in the form of blank voting forms.
Mrs Sudmalis reportedly told the meeting the last three weeks had been among the worst of her life.
Divisions in the local party have been simmering for some time, with considerable anger over the dumping of Tony Abbott as leader among the right faction offset by frustration at a perceived lack of effectiveness on behalf of Mrs Sudmalis among moderates.
While Gilmore will now be contested by Mrs Sudmalis, two NSW Liberals said to harbour ambitions for the seat in 2019 are Kiama MP Gareth Ward and Transport Minister Andrew Constance.
