EXCLUSIVE: NSW Liberal Presidential Candidate Reveals Revolutionary "Smash The Factions" Reform Plan

John Ruddick, a candidate for the Presidency of the NSW Liberal Party, argues for a revolution in the operations of the Liberal Party: 

Firstly can I say, obviously we are lucky to have someone of the stature of Arthur Sinodinos to nominate for President.  I have many friends that know Arthur well and they all tell me he is a great guy.  Arthur was particularly gracious to me in person this morning which I appreciate.

However I am nominating for President because it wouldn’t matter if we had Julius Caesar as President. The problem is not the personality of the leadership - the problem is the archaic structure of our party.  Our party is based on a 19^th century model which concentrates power.  We need a democratic party for the 21^st century. 

I have a message for all the factional hotshots in this room – your days of influence in the NSW Liberal Party are numbered.  So if you want to dedicate your life to stacking out a SEB or sneaking new members into a Special Branch – take it from me, no need to bother.

As of today I am the spokesperson for the biggest faction of all within the NSW Liberal Party – the 95% of members who faithfully renew their membership each year and don’t get a say on anything other than their branch president and treasurer.  Once every two decades there is a 10% chance they will get a say on a preselection.  And I speak for the 50,000 people across NSW who would gladly join the party if our party was structured around the Five Point Plan. 

It is absolutely inevitable that the Five Point Plan will win eventually.  Now why I am I so confident?  Because I will be unrelenting.  13 years ago Tony Abbott said this:

‘For me John Ruddick evokes the spirit of George Washington – not just because of his willingness to stand up for a principle and fight for a good cause but because of his rigorous honesty.

Why did Tony say these words?  Well that was in the middle of the most significant reform this State Council has approved in the past two decades – the removal of Young Liberal ‘double dipping.’  ‘Double dipping’ effectively gave Young Liberals twice the say in our party as everyone else.  I could see this was wrong and that it needed to go. 

The then all supreme ruling ‘Group’ faction loved double dipping because it kept them in power.  So I said to the other faction ‘hey, why don’t we campaign to get rid of double dipping?’  Half of that faction said ‘no – double dipping is good’ and the other half just dithered and said ‘we need to think about it.’ 

So John Ruddick, all on his own, without permission from anyone, started writing open letters to State Council explaining (a) what double dipping was (b) why it was wrong and (c) how we can get rid of it.

For two years the Group faction did all they could to prevent the removal of double dipping – but I persisted and others came on board (most notably Tony Abbott for which I will always be grateful) and when this State Council was finally allowed to vote on it they overwhelmingly threw double dipping out.  That was the moment the Group’s power began to crumble. 

I’ve done it before and ladies and gentlemen, I promise you, I am going to do it again.  The Five Point Plan is a continuation of the same democratic spirit that removed double dipping.   The Five Point Plan is the end of factions.

So lets go through the Five Points.

1. Plebiscites for lower house seats.  You simply cant stack a plebiscite – and if we remove the motive to branch stack there will be so manypositives.  If you don’t believe me, you will believe John Howard who said ‘Some Liberal Party factions are nothing more than preselection cooperatives.  The Liberal Party should fully embrace the branch plebiscite system for candidate selection.” 
    
2. State-wide plebiscites for our Senate and MLC candidates.   These statewide contests will be exciting, produce outstanding candidates and vitalise the membership.
3. State Executive voted by the party membership.  The State Executive is meant to be the guardians of the Liberal Party but increasingly we have State Exec members who are beholden to factions.  We all know this is wrong. 
    
4. Merger with the Nationals.  The LNP merger in Queensland has been an outstanding success.  The LNP is a division of the Liberal Party of Australia which makes NSW the last bastion of the Nationals.  Outside NSW Nationals have only three members in the House of Respensentatives.  
    
5. Parliamentary leaders elected by the party membership.  If it is good enough for the US and UK to have their candidates for President and Prime Minister chosen by the party membership then why not us?  There are too many agendas in the partyroom while the broad membership just wants the Liberal Party to win.  This reform will attract 50,000 new members and with all those membership fees we could actually buy our own office space. 

The Five Point Plan is a just cause.  I will run for President this year, next year and as long as it takes to get up these reforms up which 95% of the party membership supports.  Thank you. 

Comments

[Mark Sharma]

1.

Sorry to break your bubble Mr. Ruddick but none of this is ever going to happen in Liberal Party but there is a good chance that they will fire you for asking for these things. Good luck with your presidential thing!

[Johnny Fairplay]

2.

Sounds like a great plan for David Clarke to put 300 ethnic stacks into a key seat in order to pick a candidate who will eventually lose the general election. Great Thinking John!

[Andy]

3.

A noble plan...echoing Mark’s remarks...Good luck

[Steve]

4.

A merger with the Nationals, are you kidding? I am glad I am not a member of the NSW Division, and I hope Arthur thrashes you.

[Dan Nolan]

5.

Good luck champ

[Jack]

6.

At least this would mean that Nick Campbell and Alex Hawke couldn't stuff up any more preselections like they did in Lindsay last year, costing us the election.

[motion29]

7.

Santo Santoro is watching. If the LNP botch the next Queensland State Election, the demerger will be on. Stop pushing for stuff that won't help!

[Jake the Muss]

8.

I get the feeling from this that John Ruddick is the kind of Liberal Party member that no matter how much you agree with him, he just comes across as completely mental.

Sooo basically, he'd have my vote.

[Charles Everist]

9.

Merger with the Nationals is the most abhorent suggestion. By merging the Nats and Libs you will screw over rural communities. The Nats create a great check on the Liberal party to ensure that urban interests don't subvert the interests of country people (as in the Victorian parliament). Its not just the Liberal party that have made the most successful governments, but Coalitions. As for parliamentary leaders being selected by the members, you've just undermined one of the core structures of the party. Good luck.....you'll need it!!!

[MABEL PEYTON-SMYTH]

10.

Charles is so right and deserves credit for his constructive comments. If Ruddick needs a party model he should look to the Nats where they cannot spell Branch Stack. Also note the loyalty in a party that fights to represent their electorates. No Turnbulls or Reiths in the bush thank God. The cr...p that goes on in the Libs diverts from the major issue at hand. Get rid of the worst government this nation has seen.