The New South Wales Liberal Party has had their local council campaigns thrown into disarray after the party missed the deadline to nominate candidates in several areas. It means potentially dozens of prospective councillors will not be on the ballot next month.
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00:00The State's Liberal Party has effectively missed the boat in contesting seven key local
00:06government areas in Sydney and surrounds.
00:09By not filing the correct paperwork in time, the Liberals will be unable to field candidates
00:13in the local government areas of Camden, Shoalhaven, Lane Cove, Campbelltown, the Northern Beaches,
00:19Blue Mountains and Wollongong.
00:21It's also understood that in five other areas, some candidates have been nominated while
00:26others have missed out.
00:28Candidates in the areas of Canterbury-Bankstown, George's River, Maitland, North Sydney and
00:32Penrith.
00:33It's not currently known how many will miss out, however, the ballots will be released
00:37later today that will show who's on the ballots and who has missed out.
00:42Look, at the end of the day, filing nominations should be a basic administrative procedure.
00:49It cannot be a lack of resources.
00:52You can't blame it on that.
00:53If you don't think you've got enough resources, then you put on more resources, including
00:57volunteers.
00:58And if you still don't think you've got enough to run a centralised process, you tell the
01:02candidates that they need to lodge their nominations themselves.
01:05This is a matter of operational competence, it is a matter for the State Director.
01:10There has been some response to this already.
01:12The State's Liberal Director, Richard Shields, has come out and said it's due to some under-resourcing
01:17at the party.
01:18He's also apologised in a statement.
01:20He said, on behalf of the Secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal endorsed councillors
01:25that were not nominated, and to the party membership more broadly.
01:29Several prominent members of the Liberal Party have also responded, with some feeling very
01:34upset that this has occurred.
01:36Liberal frontbencher Anthony Roberts has called it a, quote, catastrophic failure.
01:40He's told the ABC heads need to roll as a result, and has called for an urgent party
01:45room meeting.