NSW: No urgency for dumped Towke's replacement

AAP General News (Australia)
08-04-2007
NSW: No urgency for dumped Towke's replacement

SYDNEY, Aug 4 AAP - The NSW Liberal Party feels no urgency to find a replacement candidate
for the federal southern Sydney seat of Cook following a decision not to endorse Michael
Towke.

In a move supported by Prime Minister John Howard, Mr Towke was yesterday dumped as
candidate for Cook following allegations of branch stacking and inaccuracies on his preselection
nomination form.

"Up until the decision was reached yesterday, no one was getting ahead of themselves
about `what next?'," a NSW Liberal Party spokesman said.

"We just want to let the dust settle and in a couple of days we will start looking
at possibilities for the candidacy," the spokesman said.

"Decisions will start in the next few days to produce a candidate and once that begins
it should happen quite quickly and resolve the issue."

Mr Towke won a preselection ballot in July for the safe Sydney-based seat, currently
held by Bruce Baird, beating a field of high-calibre candidates with the support of the
party's right faction.

However, Mr Towke's candidacy was put on hold following accusations that he provided
false details in his preselection application and that he had paid membership fees for
hundreds of new recruits.

The NSW Liberal Party executive is understood to have cast 11 votes against Mr Towke,
nine in favour of him, with two people abstaining from the vote.

Mr Towke has denied lying on his nomination form, and has said that enemies within
the Liberal Party were responsible for circulating material to damage his reputation.

Mr Howard today said the executive had made a decision and the next step was to endorse
a new candidate.

"... The executive always takes the right decisions on these matters because they are
in full possession of the facts," he told reporters in Sydney.

"I support the executive's decision, I respect it, I am a member of the party like
anybody else. What now we should do is move on and choose another candidate."

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