Gabrielle Chan theguardian.com, Friday 4 April 2014
Party member John Ruddick says the brand is being damaged by the parade of senior figures before the corruption commission
Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos. Photograph: Daniel Munoz/AAP
A Liberal member behind a push to reform the New South Wales Liberal party has urged the federal machine to intervene in the state branch following the appearance of the assistant treasurer, Arthur Sinodinos, at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac).
A long-time Liberal member, John Ruddick, who has been previously threatened with expulsion for speaking out, has waged a very public campaign to bring about transparency by ridding its upper levels of lobbyists and by giving members a say in preselecting MPs.
Ruddick said the Liberal brand had been damaged by the influence of lobbyists in the NSW division and the array of senior members appearing before Icac.
Under the Liberal party constitution, the federal branch can intervene in a state division if its administration is considered to be endangering electoral prospects at a federal level.
“I think the definition of imperilling the federal election is very broad. You need 75% support in the federal executive,” Ruddick told Guardian Australia. “I believe there is a mood on federal executive for change.”
His call for federal intervention comes at the end of a bad week for the Liberal party, as Sinodinos appeared at Icac over his chairmanship of Australian Water Holdings, in which disgraced Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid was an investor. Icac is investigating AWH’s billing of taxpayer-owned Sydney Water while it was carrying out water and sewage contracts around Sydney.
Ruddick’s campaign for party reform has been strengthened by evidence before Icac that two high-profile NSW Liberal powerbrokers – former NSW minister, former Liberal vice-president and lobbyist, Michael Photios, and the former party fundraiser Paul Nicolaou – were paid large retainers by AWH, in which Sinodinos was a director and chairman. Sinodinos also said he was unaware of $74,000 in donations from AWH to the Liberal party when he was both an AWH director and the treasurer of the NSW party.
Ruddick has the support of Tony Abbott’s 2013 Warringah campaign director, Walter Villatora, who has been actively working on the reform campaign.
In a move that signalled Abbott’s support for the reforms, Villatora gained Abbott’s imprimatur to become his electorate conference president just four weeks ago. Abbott has also used a speech to Liberal Party State Council last year to support greater democratisation and a survey of NSW members followed his speech.
Ruddick said federal intervention, in which the state executive of the party is replaced by an administrator, was the only way to ensure root-and-branch reform.
At his first cabinet meeting last year, Abbott banned registered lobbyists from holding party offices, saying: “I'm determined to ensure you can either be a powerbroker or a lobbyist but you can't be both."
It caused the immediate resignations of Photios as a chairman of Premier State and director of CapitalHill and Joseph Tannous, executive director of 1st State.
But Peter Collins, a former leader of the NSW party and head of lobbying firm Barton Deakin, raised the issue of the proper regulation of all lobbyists. While third-party lobbyists (who work for a series of clients) are excluded from party positions and have to be registered, lobbyists who work for a single company are not excluded and do not need to register in order to meet government ministers.
“All you've got regulated at the moment is the tip of the iceberg,” said Collins on the 7.30 Report on Thursday.
“The iceberg itself is not regulated. In other words, it's only third-party lobbyists appearing on the lobbyist register who are regulated. Companies, large and small, right across the state, right across the nation can go and see ministers without appearing on the lobbyist register.”
An examination of the NSW Liberal state executive shows serious influence of lobbyists from the top down.
The NSW party president, Chris Downy, is the chief executive officer of the Australian Wagering Council which lobbies on behalf of the online gambling industry.
The treasurer, Peter McGauran, is the chief executive of the Australian Racing Board.
An urban vice-president, Trent Zimmerman, works for the Tourism and Transport Forum, a peak industry lobby group. Another urban vice-president, Kelly Knowles, works as human resources manager for Boeing.
Until Abbott’s decree, country vice-president Hollie Hughes worked for Australian Public Affairs (APA), which came to fame during the Fiona Nash food website episode. APA is owned by Tracey Cain, the wife of Nash’s former chief of staff Alastair Furnival, who was forced to resign over the website affair.
Women’s vice-president Felicity Wilson is the NSW deputy executive director of the Property Council of Australia.
Executive member Andrew Jefferies is an executive officer of the Tourism Industry Council NSW.
Executive member Charles Perrottet works in government affairs for BP.
