‘Monumental stuff-up’: NSW Liberal leaders call for director’s head after council election nomination failure

The NSW Liberal Party is in a state of crisis after failing to nominate candidates for a host of local government elections, with party leadership hitting out at the “monumental stuff-up”.

A dozen councils will go to upcoming elections with no Liberal candidate after the party failed to submit nominations by the Wednesday deadline.

NSW Liberals leader Mark Speakman described the debacle as “the worst act of mismanagement that I can think of in the organisation’s history” in an email to colleagues on Thursday.

Officials confirmed the party missed Wednesday’s 12pm deadline to nominate up to a dozen candidates representing some of the biggest council areas in NSW.

The party’s state director Richard Shields admitted the mistake, blaming a lack of resources for the blunder and apologised to the Liberal-endorsed candidates who had not been nominated.

Deputy Liberal leader Natalie Ward said she was “ropeable” about what had been “a monumental stuff-up”.

“This is unacceptable for our members, it’s unacceptable for the candidates (and) it’s unacceptable for the voting public that support our party and want to vote for a Liberal member,” she told Sydney radio 2GB.

She and Mr Speakman called on Mr Shields to resign, with Ms Ward saying “his position is no longer tenable”.

Liberal Lane Cove mayor Scott Bennison announced he quit the party on Thursday and would be running as an independent in the upcoming election.

“I’m just sick of all the factional rubbish that happens within the party,” he told 2GB.

Describing internal party politics as “absolutely hopeless”, Mr Bennison said the blunder should never have happened.

“We’ve had three years to sort this out, and we still stuff it up ... It’s just unbelievable.”

While the Liberals await final confirmation on the extent of the blunder, The Nightly understands that affected councils include Campbelltown, Camden, Northern Beaches, Lane Cove, Shoalhaven, Wollongong, and Blue Mountains.

A number of other councils reportedly received partial nominations, including Georges River, North Sydney, Penrith, Canterbury-Bankstown and Maitland.

Mr Shields confirmed on Wednesday close to 300 Liberal candidates were nominated on time, including Parramatta, Strathfield, Blacktown, Inner West and Bayside councils.

The scale of the administrative failure will become clearer when NSW Electoral Commission publishes final list of candidates later today.