The Canberra Liberals president who oversaw Zed Seselja's historic election defeat is set to keep his position, defying an internal push to oust him from the influential role.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
John Cziesla is odds-on favourite to be re-elected president at the party's annual general meeting on Wednesday night.
He will face a challenge from journalist Michael Keating, although he is expected to comfortably win the ballot of members.
Mr Cziesla's position had been put under threat after a group of disgruntled members pushed to clean out the management committee which presided over Mr Seselja's historic defeat to former Wallabies captain David Pocock in the ACT senate race.
The Gary Humphries-led Menzies Group effectively called for the resignation of five committee members, including Mr Cziesla, arguing the top officials must be held accountable for the 2020 ACT election defeat and then the loss of the senate seat.
Mr Seselja's defeat left the Canberra Liberals without a federal representative for the first time in almost 50 years.
"We believe that the leadership of our division, which has overseen these two disasters without taking any responsibility for them, must be held to account," an email from the Menzies Group said at the time.
The moderates have long been agitating for a shift in the party's direction, warning the branch had become too conservative to succeed in Canberra.
While the push to oust Mr Cziesla has been unsuccessful, the group is hoping its favoured candidates will snare other positions on the management committee at Wednesday night's meeting.
READ MORE
The Canberra Times has obtained an email the group sent to supporters ahead of the meeting, offering guidance on which candidates to back in the various contests.
The email is written by former naval officer Sam Fairall-Lee, who is running against ex-Canberra Liberals staffer Liam Develin for the policy committee chair position. Mr Fairall-Lee challenged Mr Seselja for the ACT senate nomination ahead of the 2022 election.
The group is backing former ACT election candidate James Daniels to replace former Scott Morrison adviser Jimmy Kiploks as the branch's honorary treasurer. It wants Mr Humphries' wife, Cathie Humphries, to secure the rural and regional representative's role.
The email said neither Mr Cziesla nor Mr Keating had asked for, or received, the group's endorsement for the president's position.
If all of the group's preferred candidates win, it would represent a further shift in the balance of power of a branch which has long been under the control of Mr Seselja and his conservative allies.
The first signs of a power shift emerged last month, after former Liberal MLA Candice Burch and Danielle Young knocked off Seselja-aligned candidates in contests for management committee positions.
The annual general meeting comes after former Liberal chief minister Kate Carnell encouraged ACT opposition leader Elizabeth Lee and the Canberra Liberals to embrace policies which appealed to "middle Canberra" as it tries to unseat Labor and the Greens at the 2024 ACT election.
"No matter what side of politics you'd come from, 20 plus years is too long for any government to be in power, and the Libs have every chance of winning the next election, but they can only do that if they have policies that appeal to middle Canberra, not to the right," Ms Carnell told The Canberra Times.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
Dan covers federal politics from Parliament House, with a special focus on climate policy and the NDIS. He has previously reported on ACT politics and urban affairs since joining the Canberra Times in 2018.
