Days before the possible start of the federal election campaign, party figures are still locked in a legal battle and five seats are without candidates.
Scott Morrison and the Premier of New South Wales, Dominic Perrot, have urged the High Court to preserve their power to choose candidates for federal elections.
Just days before the expected start of the federal election campaign, the NSW Liberal Party's pre-election saga has become an absolute crisis, and is headed for urgent hearing either the High Court or the NSW Court of Appeals.
Morrison and Perrott have sought a challenge against the pre-selection of incumbent MPs Alex Hawke, Trent Zimmerman and Susan Lay to be sent directly to the High Court to prevent losers from appealing the lower court's decision at the close of May's election. Can you
The ongoing factional war has left the Liberals without candidates in five potentially winnable federal seats in NSW, where the party was expected to take seats.
So how did we get here, what's the latest, and what could happen next?
What's the backstory here?
The pre-crisis election of the NSW Liberal Party has been going on for months and it basically comes down to whether faction leaders should determine who is a candidate for parliament or the party's grassroots members.
The seeds of the turmoil go back to 2018 when the NSW Division agreed to adopt new rules in its constitution known as the Warringah Rules, championed by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the party's right wing.
They empower branches to hold referendums involving all eligible branch members to elect local, state, and federal candidates. The governing bodies of the NSW Liberal Party, the NSW State Executive and State Council, still receive 25% of the vote, giving them one vote.
The right faction fought hard for a more democratic process because it believes that members are more conservative than the party's governing bodies, which are controlled by moderates. The referendum certainly reduced the power of factional power brokers.
Who instigated the current turmoil?
Several nominations for the seats closed in May last year, but the nomination committee, which scrutinizes potential candidates, failed to meet.
Hawke, the representative of the prime minister, who runs a centre-right bloc and is the PM's numbers man in the party, was not available for months.
This meant that the referendum was not held. Time is running out, and the election, which should be held by May, is near.
The faction leaders tried to carve out the remaining nine winnable seats among the factions.
This required the NSW state executive to override constitutional requirements for a referendum with special powers. But 90% support was needed to achieve this, and despite many attempts, there were always some members, including Sydney businessman Matthew Camenzuli, who wanted a democratic process.
By the end of February, the NSW Liberal Party was dancing on the edge of a cliff.
At the insistence of Morrison and Hawke, the party's federal executive considered intervention, but a body composed of key officials and state presidents was reluctant.
It was eventually agreed to step down as candidates and appoint existing members, meaning their jobs were saved. This gave the NSW party a deadline of 25 March to resolve the pre-elections.
Limited intervention was achieved by appointing a committee of three, including the prime minister and former president, who took over the NSW branch for three days, but handed control back to the division.
The state executive of NSW agreed to resolve some seats such as Dobell, where only one candidate stood, and Bennelong, which had a pre-selection, and to proceed with referendums in Hughes, Parramatta and Eden Monaro. where there was more than one. nominated person. Votes were to be held this week.
But last Sunday, the federal executive intervened again - this time for a week.
So what happened now?
In an application seen by Guardian Australia on Wednesday, Liberal applicants, including Morrison and Perrot, have asked the NSW Supreme Court to move the entire case to the High Court.
He called for the proceedings to be expedited, with the hearing scheduled to be listed on Thursday, to answer questions as to whether courts have jurisdiction to hear inter-party disputes, which the applicants argued were "important of law." points" that needed to be settled.
The application notes that on 6 March the committee favored Hawke in Mitchell, Ley in Farr and Zimmerman in North Sydney, but Camenzuli sought to challenge the pre-selection in the Supreme Court.
"The validity of a large number of additional party selections depends on the outcome of the current dispute," he said.
The applicants noted that the matter is listed before the NSW Court of Appeals Justice John Basten on Thursday, but said the hearing is "unlikely to proceed" due to constitutional issues in the case.
The applicants warned that if the High Court does not hear the case, the parties unsuccessful in an appeal case to any NSW court will appeal to the High Court anyway.
In an urgent hearing Wednesday morning, Camenzuly's attorney Scott Robertson said it was now necessary for the court to rule on whether the actions of the federal branch of the Liberal Party were legitimate.
Camenzuli alleges that the federal party-appointed committee to run the affairs of the NSW party, and which included Morrison, Perrot, and former party chairman Chris McDiven, acted beyond its powers.
Robertson told Basten that the federal parliament could be dissolved by the weekend and an election could be called, with the matter needing to be resolved as urgently as possible.
Basten said the NSW Court of Appeal was ready to hear the matter on Thursday.
This proposal of the Court of Appeal hearing would remove one level of appeal and involve three judges hearing the issue.
Guy Reynolds SC, a federal Liberal Party attorney and Morrison, indicated that his client was seeking the case to be dropped in the High Court. They argued that the hearing in the NSW Court of Appeals "would not be final" as appeals to the High Court were available.
But access to the High Court is not automatic and will require an application and a hearing for leave.
Basten said he was not inclined to "wash the case off" of the NSW Supreme Court, but acknowledged there was "jurisdictional flesh" in the case.
They have now fixed it for Friday, pending the result of the application in the High Court.