Critics in the Liberal party warn about the second coming of Jaymes Diaz. Apparently there was a secret meeting of the party’s leaders where Blacktown Councillor Jess Diaz holds all the aces for the upcoming preselection in Greenway electorate. It will be remembered that his son Jaymes lost in 2013 after imploding in an interview conducted by a Channel 10 reporter.
The young Diaz pushed votes away from the party, after the now famous interview in which he mentioned the Liberals’ six-point plan for stopping asylum seeker boats. When asked to recite the other 5 points, Jaymes was left looking baffled and unable to provide the answer. He obviously did not do his homework.
Father Jess sits on Blacktown council and works with Jaymes in the family practice of migration law. There is a local political joke that he built his political powerbase by handing out Liberal party application forms to clients together with their visa applications.
According to a report by Sydney Morning Herald, “a closed meeting of the party’s all-powerful state executive has voted against allowing the only branch not controlled by Cr Diaz to reconvene in time for the pre-selection vote. That leaves three branches left to cast their votes, all controlled by the Filipino powerbroker, who thumbed his nose at a concerted push from then leader Tony Abbott to pick any number of candidates other than his son in 2013.”
There appears to be one powerbroker in the centre-right faction of the Liberals talking about the possibility of Cr Diaz’s younger son, Jayson to run instead of Jaymes. It was Jayson who managed his brother’s campaign.
But it seems unlikely the powerbroker could be blind to the negative associations with the family name after Jaymes’ candidacy. Cr Diaz has not responded to questions from Fairfax.
Deputy Mayor of the Hills Shire Yvonne Keane seems to be the favourite within the party. She is a former TV presentor. Cr Keane reportedly has the backing of senior factional figures, but is not close to the Diazes and her support from the local political family cannot be guaranteed.
The lady councillor aborted a previous run for the [Greenway] seat after it became apparent that Jaymes Diaz had the nomination guaranteed in advance. She declined to comment for this story.
“If [Jess] supports her, you’d expect [he] might get something in return,” said one source.
Cr Diaz is said to have previously pushed Erlinda Santos, a fellow Filipino.
The party’s Riverstone branch has about 300 members loyal to conservative local MP Kevin Conolly and is perhaps the largest in NSW and therefore likely to have influence in a preselection.
The Liberals’ appeals committee ruled that the branch should be rescued and forced to holding a meeting.
But instead of enacting that ruling, a meeting of the party’s top bosses and factional representatives voted instead to send in president Trent Zimmerman to “mediate” the dispute for an unspecified period.
Labor’s Michelle Rowland holds the seat 53-47 after winning a swing against Jaymes Diaz and beating him a second election in a row.
But, like much of Sydney’s west, it is an area thought to be becoming increasingly Liberal with demographic change. (Source: SMH)