Malcolm Turnbull has told the New South Wales Liberal party it must democratise and allow grassroots members to vote in preselections – a statement Tony Abbott immediately claimed as support for the conservative-backed Warringah motion.
Abbott ramped up the rhetoric ahead of Sunday’s vote on the reform, saying Turnbull had delivered “unequivocal support” for the Warringah motion, and called on disaffected conservatives to “stay in and fight” if it failed.
The comments, delivered at an unprecedented two-day state conference held to specifically discuss party rules, come after the two men spoke this week and agreed on some form of plebiscite.
Speaking to about 1,500 members on Saturday, Turnbull said the party must “adopt a method for selecting candidates … which gives every member a vote”. However he stopped short of backing a specific method of reform, as the party mulls two competing motions put up by different factions.
But Abbott seized on Turnbull’s remarks as support for the one-member, one-vote Warringah motion, named after his local federal branch.
On Sunday, the conference will vote on two competing methods of democratisation: the Warringah motion and a compromise motion put forward by the moderates, which grants fewer members a vote in a smaller pool of preselections.
On Saturday, former Liberal member John Ruddick told Guardian Australia he would “tear the party apart” and send disaffected members to Cory Bernardi’s Australian Conservatives if the Warringah motion failed.
In his speech, Turnbull threw his support behind some form of democratisation, saying it would bring the NSW branch into line with the majority of other state Liberal branches.
“As the party of freedom and of the individual we must give every member a say,” he said. “It’s long overdue that we adopt it.”
In a news conference after Turnbull’s speech, Abbott said this should be taken as “unequivocal support” of the Warringah motion.
He labelled the compromise motion, put forward by moderate MPs Julian Leeser and Alex Hawke, as “fake democracy”.
“There is real democracy and there is fake democracy that is on offer on tomorrrow,” he said.
“The prime minister and I are on the same side. Listen to his words today, he is an unequivocal supporter of one-member one-vote, and the only way to get that is via the Warringah motion.”
The Warringah motion will open up every state and federal preselection to a member plebiscite.
The compromise motion, however, has stricter requirements for voting rights, and will initially apply only to “open seats” – defined as electorates not held by a sitting Liberal member.
Alex Hawke said the motion was crucial to ensuring that only “genuine members” had a vote.
Contrary to the bold statements of other disaffected conservatives, Abbott urged supporters to “stay in and fight” if the motion failed.
“The Liberal party is the principal representative of the conservative side of politics in this country,” he said. “My very strong message to anyone who has been disappointed with our party is stay in and fight.”
The party’s federal president, Nick Greiner, used his speech to call for an end to infighting and a renewed focus on winning elections.
“There are always differences, there are always nuances, there are always personalities [but we should not] be spending our time on some sort of internal battles,” he said.
“We ought to have a sign, a bit like Bill Clinton’s sign about ‘it’s the economy, stupid’, to say ‘it’s winning, stupid.’”
He also called on the party to incorporate more diversity – to reach out to young people, boost female participation and reflect a more ethnically-diverse base.
Turnbull similarly stressed the importance of broadening the party’s base and swelling its membership.
“We are a genuine grassroots political movement. So we need a much bigger and broader membership. We need to use every form of digital technology to engage and connect with the largest possible membership, with the largest range of supporters.”
He described the push for democratisation as “a penetrating glimpse of the obvious”.
“People want to have a say. They want to know that when they join the Liberal party, their voice is heard. It is counted.”
Speaking to the media, Abbott denied that Greiner’s reference to a recent “lack of civility” was directed at him, and played down the suggestion that he had ambitions for the leadership.
“I am the member for Warringah [but] as a former prime minister, I will occasionally have things to say,” he said.
