Latest news with #NSWLiberal
Sky News AU
14-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Treasury must ensure it can ‘pay for all' government spending
Former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski discusses Treasurer Jim Chalmers potentially changing the tax system in Australia. Ms Chikarovski told Sky News Australia that the GST has 'already been ruled out'. 'So, what tweaks or what substantial changes can you make that will actually leave people better off, and that's the issue. 'We need to make sure that we can pay for all the spending that we're being involved in.'
The Age
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
The Liberals need to be sufficiently assertive to fix their gender problem. Allow me to woman-splain
When former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, acting as the interim head of the NSW Liberal party, suggested that women in the party were 'sufficiently assertive' and that in fact the Liberals may need to 'protect men's involvement', he said it was a joke. The gag – made to a virtual meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, during a discussion about female representation – didn't land with the crowd. But surely I was not the only one tickled when reading reports of the comments a few days after they were made. It was the use of the adverb 'sufficiently' which most amused me – the idea that female assertiveness has an allocation, and that the allocation had been filled, as decreed by Stockdale. It helped that the news report was illustrated with a photograph of Stockdale (80) and his co-chair, former Howard government minister Richard Alston (84), seated in front of a portrait of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies – an earnest trio of white-haired gerontocrats. Stockdale's right hand was poised in the air, as though caught mid-mansplain. Last year former Liberal leader Peter Dutton appointed Stockdale, Alston, and former NSW MP Peta Seaton as administrators to run the NSW division. The NSW branch was deemed incapable of managing itself after its failure to nominate 144 candidates for local government elections in September (they had one job, etc). But after Stockdale's comments were widely leaked, the male party veterans had to go. Ironically, their ouster (official reason given: they were too Victorian to help in NSW) only helped to prove the truth of Stockdale's remarks. It seemed very much like they were forced to quit their posts because, well, they came across a lot like out-of-touch old white guys. In lamenting his own victimhood, Stockdale ended up proving his own point.
Sydney Morning Herald
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Liberals need to be sufficiently assertive to fix their gender problem. Allow me to woman-splain
When former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale, acting as the interim head of the NSW Liberal party, suggested that women in the party were 'sufficiently assertive' and that in fact the Liberals may need to 'protect men's involvement', he said it was a joke. The gag – made to a virtual meeting of the NSW Liberal Women's Council, during a discussion about female representation – didn't land with the crowd. But surely I was not the only one tickled when reading reports of the comments a few days after they were made. It was the use of the adverb 'sufficiently' which most amused me – the idea that female assertiveness has an allocation, and that the allocation had been filled, as decreed by Stockdale. It helped that the news report was illustrated with a photograph of Stockdale (80) and his co-chair, former Howard government minister Richard Alston (84), seated in front of a portrait of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies – an earnest trio of white-haired gerontocrats. Stockdale's right hand was poised in the air, as though caught mid-mansplain. Last year former Liberal leader Peter Dutton appointed Stockdale, Alston, and former NSW MP Peta Seaton as administrators to run the NSW division. The NSW branch was deemed incapable of managing itself after its failure to nominate 144 candidates for local government elections in September (they had one job, etc). But after Stockdale's comments were widely leaked, the male party veterans had to go. Ironically, their ouster (official reason given: they were too Victorian to help in NSW) only helped to prove the truth of Stockdale's remarks. It seemed very much like they were forced to quit their posts because, well, they came across a lot like out-of-touch old white guys. In lamenting his own victimhood, Stockdale ended up proving his own point.
Sky News AU
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Embattled NSW Liberal committee undergoes major shake-up, as moderates reassert dominance whilst fending off unexpected bid from Tony Abbott
The beleaguered NSW Liberal state committee has been purged, with ex-Victorian Senator Richard Alston and former Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale dumped as administrators of the branch after a string controversies and gaffes. The federal executive met on Tuesday afternoon and voted 20 votes to one on the new leadership panel proposed by federal Liberal leader Sussan Ley and her NSW counterpart Mark Speakman. The meeting concluded that the bruised division would remain in administration until next March with former NSW Premier Nick Greiner installed as the independent chair to oversee the seven-person state executive committee for the next nine months. Ms Ley selected former state MP Peta Seaton as her delegate on the committee, while Mr Speakman appointed barrister and outspoken moderate Jane Buncle. It is also understood that multiple members of the NSW right faction lobbied for former Prime Minister Tony Abbott to be appointed to the committee, however the move was resoundingly voted down by the executive. The meeting's rejection of Abbott's bid resulted in a tense factional dispute between moderates and the right. Numerous Liberal right figures labelled the new group the "committee of management" and attacked party bosses for establishing an executive stacked with staunch social moderates and soft-right forces led by factional leader federal MP Alex Hawke. One anonymous conservative Liberal described the outcome as a "Hawke/Moderate intervention' and told The Daily Telegraph, 'their mission will be to prevent reform from happening.' 'If the rules of the party mean that Hawke and the Moderates are always in charge, what incentive do they have to change the rules?' The new committee will include Mark Baillie who will serve as treasurer, James Owen, Peter O'Hanlon and Berenice Walker who is also the President of the NSW Women's Council. The result means that Victorian Liberal elders Alan Stockdale and Richard Alston will be axed as interim administrators, after former federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton announced a 10-month takeover of the NSW branch and installed a three-person oversight panel due to the 2024 council nomination blunder. Mr Stockdale's tenure was viewed as unsustainable by a myriad of NSW Liberal figures after the veteran politician stated at a gathering of the NSW Liberal Women's Council that women had become 'sufficiently assertive' and that reverse quotas for men were needed. Multiple Liberal insiders told the Sydney Morning Herald Mr Stockdale was vocal in his opposition of Ms Walker being appointed to the committee. Ms Walker had previously railed against the party's direction under Mr Stockdale's leadership, with the women's council passing a motion on May 25 conveying their 'firm and formal opposition to any extension of the federal intervention'. Ms Seaton was the only member of the interim panel who survived the restructure. The singular vote against Ley and Speakman's committee was Charlie Taylor, the brother of shadow defence minister Angus Taylor who recently lost the Liberal leadership ballot, Liberal sources told the Sydney Morning Herald. A Liberal source told the Daily Telegraph that NSW members had 'reclaimed the party back from Victoria'. 'The Victorian division is sinking fast and we want nothing to do with that Titanic,' the unnamed source added. The meeting also appointed former NSW state minister Pru Goward and former federal minister and factional powerbroker Nick Minchin to lead a review into the Liberal's thumping 2025 federal election defeat. Ms Goward and Mr Minchin are set to investigate the Coalition's tumultuous election campaign and the last term of parliament under former opposition leader Peter Dutton and provide recommendations about how the party can best reclaim the litany of seats lost to both the Teals and the Labor Party. They are also expected to scrutinise the centralised nature of Liberal campaign HQ in the lead-up to the election, of which numerous Coalition figures have spoken out against since the overwhelming defeat.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Senator Maria Kovacic on what the Coalition needs to move forward
'If we don't listen it's not going to get better for us – it will get worse,' says the NSW Liberal moderate and newly appointed shadow assistant minister, joining Guardian Australia's chief political correspondent Tom McIlroy to discuss her party's future
