So, the NSW Liberal Party has “blocked” – whatever that means and whatever gives them the right to so do – the prospective candidacy of one Noel McCoy in the seat of Castle Hill, a pre-selection he was expected to win comfortably. Which only goes to show that, like the Bourbons, the NSW Liberal Party has learned nothing and forgotten nothing.
(“The quote is attributed to Talleyrand in speaking about the restored Bourbon dynasty after the abdication of Napoleon, and subsequently used against the French socialists and others. It comes close to Einstein’s definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results ...” https://www.staugustine.net/blogs/rectify-names-a-blog-on-publishing/e2809cthey-had-learned-nothing-and-forgotten-nothinge2809d-march-11-2013/)
I have previously argued the merits of candidate McCoy, especially in the context of a Party facing defeat, in secular decline and so in desperate need of fresh blood and honest, decent representatives.
https://politicom.com.au/libs-to-perish-without-new-talent/
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, who, like almost everyone else, falsely calls McCoy “hard right”:
However, McCoy on Friday said a Liberal Party internal review committee had rejected his candidacy over his vocal opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations.
“I have consistently and publicly sought to defend the party’s core values – freedom and liberty – and, in doing so, have at times in the more recent past criticised some aspects of the Berejiklian government’s and the Morrison government’s policy responses to COVID,” McCoy said.
“This has been weaponised to block me.”
After the rejection of McCoy’s nomination, Liberal Party state director Chris Stone emailed preselectors late on Friday to tell them that, due to “unforeseen circumstances”, the preselection for Castle Hill had been cancelled.
Mr Stone, by the way, was previously employed for four years by Michael Photios at Premier State Consulting. Indeed, Stone is still, to this day, registered as a Director of this company. He is, therefore, not fit to stand in judgment of McCoy’s candidacy or, indeed, to occupy the position of State Director.
Readers unfamiliar with Photios might like to start their researches here, where I argued that:
There is something rotten in the State of New South Wales. The State is run by paid lobbyists who control the Liberal Party. And the interests and philosophies of these puppeteers are decidedly not those of mainstream folks who believe, naively, that they control the governments that they vote for. The governments are puppets.
New South Wales is governed as a fiefdom, with absolute control, by a perfectly vertically and horizontally integrated cabal of thugs. That people in the know say absolutely nothing about this governance structure – ever – is itself worthy of our horror. Is there any wonder that, during Covid, they tried to run the State as they run their own Party? Rules do not matter. Propriety is non-existent. Due process? What on earth is that? Ruthless, hard power is all that counts.
Stone’s very presence as State Director of the NSW Party is, on its own, sufficient reason to throw the Liberals out of office come March. That the people who really run New South Wales – not for nothing called the Rum Corps State – do not seem to understand why this (Stone’s own career trajectory) is a problem, or care, says all that needs to be said about the governance of the State. These people simply do not know the meaning of public service, conflict of interest or ministerial responsibility. Any party member who is not disgusted by this development, and anyone who attempts to justify it on ANY ground should be held in public contempt. In public shame. In public ridicule. Any member who stays in the Party after this latest transgression must be taken for a complete fool.
So, there we have it. The Victorian Liberal Party didn’t want Bernie Finn because he is pro-life. He is now a member of the Democratic Labor Party. Nor did they want Renee Heath because she belongs to a Christian church that believes in Christianity. The South Australian Division didn’t want Christians because, well, too, they are Christian. The NSW Liberal Party doesn’t want anyone who opposed lockdowns and vaccine mandates. (Now that Heath has won in Victoria, perhaps the pathetic Liberals down there will have her back. She shouldn’t want to go back, of course).
Here is what Heath said last week:
“When we begin to capitulate to the media or when we give in to the intimidation of the left, I honestly think that it affects the Liberal Party at large.”
Ms Heath said she feels the public is lacking faith in parliamentarians at the moment, which must be addressed.
“I don’t think the public has a lot of faith in the government or the opposition at the moment,” she said.
“I think when we don’t defend our colleagues, the public look and they think ‘are they going to stand up for me’ and that’s just something we have to sort out
“And we have to come back to our values… We are the people that stand up for freedom.”
Clearly the NSW Liberal Party disagrees with the successful Ms Heath. Which returns us to the McCoy issue.
The NSW Government’s lockdown policies and vaccine mandates for hundreds of thousands of its citizens, implemented by the ogre, Health Hazzard, were simultaneously contemptible and vicious. The only thing separating them from Daniel Andrews’ approach were the police rubber bullets in the back suffered by Melburnians. We did have Army choppers patrolling the streets at night. We were stopped from visiting businesses if unjabbed, while our hospitals were full of the jabbed. We were restricted from travel. We were forced to wear muzzles. Public servants were sacked and not compensated. We were lied to by public officials, who must have known that the vaccines do not work and were not needed by most. That they are dangerous for many. That there was NEVER a Covid crisis. If they knew, they lied. To say that this must never happen again, ever, in New South Wales, disqualifies you from public office under the banner of the Liberal Party.
At its most straightforward, it no longer qualifies you to run for pre-selection in the Liberal Party if you hold to liberal values, and hold them dearly. It is that simple. We do not want you.
Just don’t let me hear either of those once great, now merely useful idiots, Tony Abbott or John Howard, attempt to trot out the broad church gibberish any more. The Liberal Party, like the British Tory Party, is no more. There can no longer be any argument about this. If there is any justice whatsoever, all that awaits both parties, separated by little other than twelve thousand miles, is the dustbin of history. There is literally no point in good, freedom-loving candidates putting themselves forward for this sad legacy organisation. The only way forward is for good candidates to look to other parties for which to stand, and to preference the Liberals last come the NSW election in March 2023.
If these clowns actually could run a state, we might be able to forgive them some of their illiberalism and the way they disdain their own Party members. But they can’t, so we won’t.
It remains to be seen what the so-called conservative, Daniel Andrews-loving NSW Premier thinks and might say about the McCoy affair. In August this year, Dominic Perrottet urged the Party to learn the lessons of the Federal Election by respecting the pre-selection process. The Premier stated:
Many members have raised concerns about the pre-selection process – and they’re right. One of the most important rights of party members is the power to select candidates to represent your values. This State Council made a decision for democratic reform. And I as your Parliamentary Leader am committed to implementing that decision. So today I can announce that within the next two weeks we will open pre-selections for every electorate for next year’s election.
https://nswliberal.org.au/LPNSW/media/Howler/PDF/Premier-s-State-Council-AGM-Speech.pdf
Equally, one wonders whether the latest atrocity will presage a political comeback by the truly God-awful David Elliott, one of the most egregious politicians ever to grace the stage in Sydney politics. It wouldn’t, it couldn’t, happen anywhere else. It is almost inevitable here.
The McCoy matter, not uncoincidentally, occurred in the same week that Gladys’s ex-boyfriend was charged with criminal conspiracy.
Former MP Daryl Maguire has been charged with criminal conspiracy over an alleged visa fraud underway while he was sitting in the NSW parliament.
The former Wagga MP, who resigned after an anti-corruption inquiry and later had his discrete romantic relationship with former premier Gladys Berejiklian exposed, is accused of conspiring with migration agent Maggie Sining Logan between January 2013 and August 2015.
Federal prosecutors allege he conspired with Logan to have false or misleading documents to be furnished for official purposes in connection with non-citizens' visas.
Nice. Maguire joins many others from this failed Liberal-National Administration in the naughty corner. Barilaro? Gareth Ward? Gladys herself? Don Harwin? John Sidoti? Michael Johnsen?
Nothing much more need be said. Bring on March 2023. Bring. It. On.
Paul Collits
3 December 2022
The great machine that should select the very best, shiniest, crunchy apples from the whole harvest for the voters to choose from, once again selects the most rotten, worm infested ones....but we keep thinking it’ll change. The machine is broken folks, finished, beyond repair. That’s ‘Plan A’ done with, now for’Plan B’ (with thanks to Richard Kelly).
This is a segment from a longer video posted by Joel Jammal. The smugness and the complacency of these four Liberal peabrains tells you everything you need to know about the state of the party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeEDub-7_Ok
You have to wonder what's in store for Senators Rennick and Antic. They show the rest of the Liberals in parliament up as the cowards that they are; that won't be tolerated forever.