00:00Plenty of Liberals were lost for words today, but the Opposition Leader did his best to
00:06sum up the full spectrum of their surprise.
00:09From the mildly horrified...
00:11Look, it's a setback.
00:12It is a stuff-up.
00:13This is an extraordinary and unexpected event.
00:16To the downright furious.
00:18This is a stuff-up.
00:19This is a fiasco.
00:21This is a debacle.
00:22There's no other way to describe it.
00:24Liberal Party headquarters missed a deadline to nominate close to 140 candidates.
00:29As a result, there are no Liberals running in Blue Mountains, Campbelltown, Cessnock,
00:33Lane Cove, Maitland, Northern Beaches, Shoalhaven or Wollongong.
00:37There are also missing nominations in Bayside, Camden, Canterbury-Bankstown, Central Coast,
00:43Georges River, Hornsby, Newcastle, North Sydney, Penrith and Queenbeyan-Palorane.
00:49State Director Richard Shields has blamed a lack of resources.
00:52If you don't think you've got enough resources, then you put on more resources, including
00:56volunteers.
00:57And if you still don't think you've got enough to run a centralised process, you tell the
01:01candidates that they need to lodge their nominations themselves.
01:04The State Director has to fall on his sword.
01:07For what it's worth, Mr Speaker, I think Richard Shields is doing a great job.
01:11This evening Richard Shields fronted the cameras, saying he was focused on the federal election
01:16and the local government contest was being overseen by State President Don Harwin.
01:21Calls for my resignation are premature, as there must be a proper review of the nomination
01:28process to establish the full facts.
01:31Paul Ell was expecting to run for Mayor of Shoalhaven.
01:34Now he and his Liberal team will be left on the sidelines.
01:38We did everything that we were required to do.
01:40We followed all of the steps that were put before us.
01:43We submitted all of the paperwork that was necessary.
01:45No one put in their nomination.
01:46They could have done it themselves.
01:47You could have done it yourself.
01:48In fact, if you did do it yourself, the party of self-reliance, Mr Speaker, if you actually
01:55bothered to put in your own nomination, you could have run.
01:57While it might be local candidates missing out, this could be a costly mistake for party
02:02morale in the lead up to a federal election and Labor is already taking its campaign of
02:06mockery to the national stage.
02:09It's odd people thinking they can be in charge of national security when they can't even
02:12nominate for local government.
02:13We do know that those opposite couldn't organise a barbecue at Bunnings, Mr Speaker.
02:17The opposition leader says the Liberals will dust themselves off and move on, but the bruises
02:22from this bust up will take a long time to heal.
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