A number of incumbent councillors, including ones who are in strong Liberal areas, will no longer be able to run.
The New South Wales Liberal Party has missed the candidate nomination deadline for a number of councils ahead of next month's statewide local government elections.
Incumbent Queanbeyan-Palerang Liberal councillor Ross Macdonald has confirmed he and other Liberal candidates on the same council will now only appear in the ungrouped column below-the-line, making their election chances much more difficult.
In Camden, Liberal deputy mayor Therese Fedeli has confirmed her party's Central Ward ticket is unaffected, but the tickets in North Ward and South Ward − which currently have two and one Liberal councillors respectively − will not be on the ballot paper. The Liberals won 44% of the vote in Camden in 2021 and currently hold a plurality on council.
In Penrith, East Ward is uncontested, giving Labor all five seats in that ward. They now just need three more seats (of the remaining 10 across two other wards) for a majority.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Liberals believe the following LGAs are "likely" affected:
Northern Beaches
Lane Cove
Shoalhaven
Wollongong
Campbelltown
Camden
Blue Mountains
They also believe there have been partial nominations for several other LGAs:
Georges River
North Sydney
Penrith
Canterbury Bankstown
Maitland
According to The Tally Room's Ben Raue, this was the first time the Liberals were endorsing for Shoalhaven local elections. Raue also says at least two Liberal members (Jemma Tribe in Shoalhaven, running with Team Tribe Independents, and Lane Cove mayor Scott Bennison in West Ward) were able to quit the party to run as independents "without official party opposition".
On Northern Beaches Council, the party gained a plurality several months ago after a Your Northern Beaches Independent Team councillor defected. Labor, who is contested several Northern Beaches wards for the first time in their history, will be on the ballot, while the Liberals will not.
Liberal state director Richard Shields says: "With the secretariat resources that we had available, unfortunately we were unable to nominate in all of the local government areas that were put forward by the state executive."
"The status of nominated Liberal candidates will be communicated upon confirmation from the NSW Electoral Commission. On behalf of the secretariat, I would like to apologise to Liberal endorsed councillors that were not nominated and to the party membership more broadly."