NSW Liberals endorse Tony Abbott-backed reforms for more power to be given to grassroot members

A sweeping bid to reform the Liberal Party’s biggest division has won clear support from members with 61 per cent backing the “Warringah Motion” that seeks to curb the powers of officials and overhaul the way election candidates are chosen.

The Australian was told that 748 members out of 1224 voted in favour of the reform plan to give it majority support and put pressure on officials to act swiftly to implement the changes.

The motion was championed by Tony Abbott to allow plebiscites to select candidates for state and federal seats in NSW.

Sitting members would also be open to challenge under a motion passed at a special convention in Sydney on Sunday.

The Warringah Motion was split into two sections, with the first outlining changes to plebiscites to select candidates and the second calling for constitutional change to curb the powers of the state executive.

The second vote was also passed with a clear majority of 769 to 423 votes, a margin of 65 per cent.

There was a minor hitch at the convention when the electronic voting system went down for almost half an hour, which meant the votes of 1500 members had to be cast again. The voting system involves a website which can be accessed via smart phones, tablets and computers. Some members were allowed to vote manually if they did not have electronic devices.

The majority vote for change is only the first step in a long process because it could be watered down by competing proposals also being debated on Sunday afternoon.

While the Warringah Motion is backed by former prime minister Mr Abbott and frontbenchers such as Angus Taylor, it is resisted by moderates and centre-right Liberals who want limits placed on the rights of members to vote for their local election candidates.

Liberal frontbencher Alex Hawke is arguing for a motion that would require new members to wait three years before exercising full voting rights in “plebiscites” to choose candidates, while also imposing an activity test.

A successful vote for Mr Hawke’s motion would modify the outcome on the Warringah Motion, say those backing the “pure” democratic reform.

“We’re looking good but we don’t have victory until the Hawke motion is defeated because the Hawke compromise could wreck everything,” said one advocate for the Warringah Motion.

“But it’s looking terrific.”

Another supporter of the Warringah Motion, Sky News host and former MP Ross Cameron, issued a similar warning.

“Not over yet folks,” Mr Cameron tweeted. “All eyes now on evil Alex Hawke motion. If both pass, reform falls into a bog.”

A how-to-vote card issued by backers of the so-called Warringah motions called on members at the special convention to vote “yes” only to the two motions, and “no” to the dozens of others. “Stop the factions, stop the stacking, take control of your party,” the card reads.

Key proponent, retired major general Jim Molan, received loud applause in moving the motions.

Voting is still to come on a series of other reform motions. It is understood Mr Molan successfully moved to cut short the debate and bring on a vote.

Sunday showdown

Malcolm Turnbull made a powerful case to expand the rights of Liberal members in “every step” of the party’s activities as he calls for new ways to build the membership and fight a “hard left” Labor Party at the next election.

The Prime Minister on Saturday declared that party reform was needed on moral as well as political grounds to ensure members had a say in a grassroots movement that he described as the most successful in the country, although he acknowledged the threat from Labor and others.

“As the party of freedom and the power of the individual, we must give every member a say,” Mr Turnbull told members at a NSW convention on party reform that is expected to draw about 1500 attendees.

“It is not just right politically but morally.”

Liberal Party federal president Nick Greiner warned the party risked losing the “on the ground” battle with Labor, the unions and activist groups like GetUp, forcing it to raise more money and use new technology to win the next election.

Mr Greiner also warned that the party’s share of the female vote was going down and it needed to do a better job in terms of female participation in parliament. He added that this should also be done with the ethnicity of members.

“We need to reflect in every sense the different ethnic complexion as it changes,” he said.

Mr Turnbull backed the key reform at stake in the meeting — plebiscites to give members a vote on the selection of election candidates — but he avoided taking sides on the detail of the rules that will decide how they are run.

While conservatives want all new members to have a say after a waiting period of two years, moderates are pushing for three or four years by warning of “branch stacking” without strict controls.

While conservatives argue that all members should have a say, moderates and centre-right groups are advocating an “activity test” so that voting rights only go to those who turn up to hand out how-to-vote cards or help in other ways.

Mr Turnbull the party must give members a say in “every step of our process” and cited his time as honorary treasurer of the party in 2002 when it commissioned work by consulting firm Crosby Textor on how to attract and keep members.

“What it revealed was that people want to have a say. They want to know when they join the Liberal Party their voice is heard,” he said.

He said he knew there were differences but would leave it to others to work them out in detail.

“It is a very good idea but it is not a new idea and it is not overdue that we adopt it,” he said.

Mr Turnbull acknowledged key members in the audience, including Mr Abbott, but he defended his government against one of Mr Abbott’s warnings last year — that the narrow election victory meant it would be “in office but not in power” this term.

“Many people said we would be in office but not in power,” Mr Turnbull told the party members.

“There was scepticism about our ability to make it work. But we have made it work.”

To make his point named reforms over the past year including the restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, tougher governance rules on unions, the cut in the company tax rate for smaller businesses, the Gonski 2.0 school funding reforms, the families package that included more help for childcare and several tranches of national security laws. He restated the goal of returning the budget to surplus in 2020-21.

But he warned that political campaigning had changed over the past decade with the rise of Facebook, social media more broadly and the use of the smartphone, allowing campaigners to go past the media “often in a misleading way” and run scare campaigns.

He cited Bill Shorten’s warnings about “privatising Medicare” last year as proof of this trend.

“So the party has to be, at every level … thoroughly modern, thoroughly digital,” he said.

“We have to recognise, too, that our greatest strength is you.

“And so we need a much bigger and broader membership.

“We need to use every form of digital technology to engage with the largest possible membership.”

Mr Greiner, a former NSW Liberal premier who became the party’s federal president last month, added weight to that message by warning the party did not have enough money compared to the “radical left agenda” of the unions and Labor.

“We are not in front in terms of financial resources. We need to look at new ways of raising money,” he said, adding that they should not be “ashamed” at being more direct about fundraising.

On the use of social media and digital technology to campaign for members and votes, Mr Greiner said the Liberals were “not the most modern” of the major political parties and had to upgrade their approach to campaigning on the ground.

The Sunday vote comes as Mr Abbott continues to criticise government policy, most recently by seeming to object to the creation of a Home Affairs ministry just weeks after he appeared to support the idea.

Mr Abbott spoke to the media shortly after Mr Turnbull’s speech and said he was “encouraged” by the Prime Minister’s remarks.

Mr Abbott called for “one member, one vote” rights within the party “all the time” and warned against “fake democracy” on offer from the motions that would water down the Warringah Motion.

“Reform is coming and it is obviously coming with the full support of the Prime Minister and that is a wonderful thing for the party,” Mr Abbott said.

“This is a contest between factionalists who want to keep power and democrats who want to open up our party. I am very pleased that the Prime Minister and I are on the same side.”

Mr Abbott said the Prime Minister’s words showed he was an unequivocal supporter of “one member, one vote”.

After months of blistering attacks on Mr Turnbull from conservative media commentators who champion Mr Abbott, the new federal president delivered a rebuke to those who were getting out of hand.

“I do notice — it would be hard not to — some lack of that civility, some lack of that mutual respect,” Mr Greiner said.

“Of course we advocate with passion, of course we argue our views on what is best for our party and our nation. But not to do it with our tradition of civility and mutual respect is most unfortunate.”

Mr Greiner’s other message was to remind members that the purpose of the party was to win and deliver good government — a rebuke to those who preferred to engage in philosophical debates that fuelled division.

Mr Greiner said that just as former US president Bill Clinton had a sign on his office wall saying “it’s the economy, stupid” the Liberals needed a sign saying “it’s winning, stupid”.

With AAP