A motion championed by Tony Abbott to introduce one member one preselection voting has passed at the Liberal party’s New South Wales convention.
NSW Liberals voted for the Warringah motion with a 61% majority on Sunday afternoon, following brief delays after the electronic voting system went down.
There were 784 votes from a total pool of 1,224 cast in favour of the first Warringah motion.
A vote for a second Warringah motion was also passed, 769-423, according to the former MP Ross Cameron, a supporter of the changes, who tweeted “the empire is imploding”.
Two Lib sources say Warringah motion has passed 61% in favour of plebiscites for all MPs/office bearers after electronic voting system crash
— Gabrielle Chan (@gabriellechan) July 23, 2017
The motion is for one vote to be given to all MPs and office-bearers in the NSW Liberals during preselections. Current rules give votes to branch representatives and central party officials.
Abbott said the NSW Liberal party would no longer be an insiders club after the convention.
“We didn’t like the insiders club, the closed shop which the NSW Liberal party has been for too long,” he said. “We will do even greater things now that we’ve got this mandate to be a genuine people’s party.”
A key proponent of the reforms, the Warringah electoral conference president and powerbroker Walter Villatora, said the party membership had “clearly spoken” on Sunday. He said the reforms would make NSW the most democratic division in Australia.
Abbott described the reforms as “true democracy” versus the “fake democracy” proposed by the party’s moderate and soft right factions, which wanted to restrict the party members’ influence.
Villatora said: “Somewhere up above in Liberal party heaven Robert Menzies is looking down and smiling.
“The era of brutal factionalism is over. I want to thank the hundreds of members who’ve made this happen. I especially want to thank the prime minister and the premier for their clear support for democratic reform.”
The motions still need to be ratified by the state council. Villatora said he expected that to take place in three months.
Another reform proponent, retired major general Jim Molan, received loud applause in moving the motions on Sunday.
Other motions, proposed by Liberal MP Alex Hawke, were proposed to temper the reforms. Hawke’s motions would protect sitting members from the new system with a grandfather clause and place eligibility criteria on voting members, including activity tests and waiting times.
Hawke’s motions were voted down.
There were a large number of motions yet to be debated when the meeting concluded on Sunday. It is currently unclear what will happen to the remaining motions.
Face of @AlexHawkeMP on learning result of Warringah motion. #LibConvention pic.twitter.com/wd9yl08MAW
— Ross Cameron (@RossCameron4) July 23, 2017
A how-to-vote card issued by backers of the so-called Warringah motions called on members at the special convention to vote “yes” only to the two motions, and “no” to the dozens of others, which have yet to be voted on. “Stop the factions, stop the stacking, take control of your party,” the card reads.
One NSW Liberals member, Kevin Brennan, tweeted before the debate: “If the one member one vote motion doesn’t get passed in the NSW Liberal party convention today then the election is lost + the party finished.”
About 1,500 members had registered to attend the NSW Liberal Futures convention.
Two sources told AAP the electronic voting system went down just before 3pm as members were about to vote on the motion to introduce plebiscites to select candidates for state and federal parliament. The online voting system can be accessed via smartphones, tablets and computers.
A party insider told AAP it was likely several of the motions could get a majority of votes on the floor, and it would then be up to party officials to weave them together into what has been described as a “modernisation plan”.
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, spoke in favour of plebiscites at the convention on Saturday as a way of giving more power to members and building the party’s membership base.
He described plebiscites as a “fundamental element of party democracy”.
However there are differences of views over the checks and balances in the system, including a minimum period of membership of the party.
Abbott, who has been criticising the direction of the government under Turnbull, said the victory wasn’t about him but about the party.
“Now we can go forward as one united party,” he said.
Abbott told reporters on Saturday those who oppose his “one member one vote” motions were advocating “fake democracy”.
Cameron and a fellow Warringah backer, the former NSW president John Riddick, warned the moderates against trying to stymie the changes by bogging it down at state council.
“You cannot ignore the will of the people that has been so clearly demonstrated today,” Riddick told reporters outside the meeting. “If they don’t ratify it in three months, they are risking a terrible war of ratification.”
Moderates put on a brave face, with Mackellar MP Jason Falinksi hailing the vote as the beginning of a new start for the party that would allow it to reform and address external challenges.
“I think this conference today will be a unifying moment in the history of the Liberal party in NSW,” the factional powerbroker told reporters.
When asked if it was a win for Abbott, he said it was a “win for all Liberals wherever they may be”.
“I don’t believe it will be a shift to the right,” he said as he was heckled by Cameron in front of reporters.
The current preselection practice involves a combination of branch-elected local delegates and “central” electors from outside the seat.
It is understood Turnbull did not support part of the Warringah motions.
