Simmering tensions within the conservative faction of the NSW Liberals could see party elder Damien Tudehope forced out of parliament at the March election, as the former Perrottet-era minister faces an increasingly likely preselection challenge from within the party’s right.
It comes as Taylor Martin, the former Liberal MP exiled to the crossbench two years ago after former federal MP Lucy Wicks lodged a formal complaint against him, prepares to launch a last-minute bid to appeal his expulsion before his term ends in March.
Tudehope was reinstated to Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane’s shadow ministry in a reshuffle earlier this month after he stood aside in the lead-up to the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny inquiry because of his ties to several figures at the centre of the probe.
Tudehope told the ICAC he leaked a confidential parliamentary inquiry report into the links between Liberal figures and fugitive developer Jean Nassif to lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood, a key subject of the 2023 parliamentary probe, before it was released to the public. Tudehope was not a person of interest in the ICAC inquiry.
Despite his return to the shadow frontbench, his future remains uncertain, thanks to both the Coalition’s dire polling numbers and a looming challenge from Hunter-based right-winger Blake Keating.
While nominations for the upper house are yet to formally open, the Herald has confirmed Keating, who won 40 per cent of the vote when he ran for NSW Liberal Party state president in March, is lining up to contest an upper house spot which would see him pitted against Tudehope.
Both men come from the conservative wing of the Liberals, but different camps within the right; Tudehope is a key ally of former premier Dominic Perrottet, while Keating is linked to the “mainstream” conservative faction led by shadow police minister and veteran MP Anthony Roberts.
The animosity between the two sub-factions is complicated, but some within the right harbour long-standing resentment against Tudehope because of his role in unseating former Liberals Lou Amato and Matthew Mason-Cox before the last election.
The Liberal Party ticket in the upper house is decided based on geographic regions, and what is known as the “at large” spots. Under the Coalition agreement, the Nationals usually secure two winnable spots on the upper house ticket.
Based on current polling, the Liberals could have as few as three MPs elected to the upper house in March. As Natalie Ward, the deputy Liberal leader and a senior moderate, has secured the top spot on the ticket, the order for the rest of the ballot will be crucial.
Martin sparked speculation within the party that he may attempt a last-minute re-election bid after he lodged an appeal against his expulsion last week.
The party expelled Martin in April 2024 after an investigation into a complaint made by Wicks, who held the federal seat of Robertson until 2022.
The upper house MP – elected into the party’s Hunter and Central Coast position in 2017 but on the crossbench as an independent since being expelled – has engaged high-profile lawyer Rebekah Giles as part of his bid to restore his party membership.
Those close to Martin, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations, hosed down suggestions he was seeking to run against Tudehope and Keating, noting the party’s constitution required a vote at State Council, which was unlikely to occur before nominations close in a few weeks.
While Tudehope is a member of the north-west metropolitan region, he is expected to vacate the spot for shadow treasurer Scott Farlow, a member of the centre right who is currently “at large”. Farlow has emerged as one of the party’s few shining lights during this term of parliament, and was rewarded with a promotion to shadow treasurer in January. Colleagues in the party had encouraged him to run for the vacant lower house seat of Wahroonga, but he opted to remain in the Legislative Council.
The move to the north-west, which covers centre-right powerbroker Alex Hawke’s support base, is designed to ensure he secures a winnable spot on the ticket.
Tudehope will seek to move to the Hunter and Central Coast region, where he has support from figures including Wicks.
Sloane handed him the energy portfolio when he returned to cabinet earlier this month, a role which gives him closer links to the Hunter.
But the attempted switch will not happen without resistance. Keating, a Hunter local, will also nominate. A former NSW Liberal state executive member, Keating led the “No” campaign in the Hunter during the Voice referendum vote and previously warned against the Liberal Party conducting a “cautious shuffle toward the so-called ‘Sensible Centre’.”
“The core mistake here is thinking the Liberal Party’s path to relevance lies in becoming a more palatable version of the Labor Party,” he wrote in Spectator after the party’s landslide defeat in the 2025 federal election.
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