Jaimie Abbott, the councillor who said last year that she was “ashamed” of her own party over its handling of the Mambo wetlands sell-off, is the Liberal candidate for the state seat of Port Stephens.
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The party confirmed on Monday that its state executive had endorsed Cr Abbott to take on sitting Labor MP Kate Washington on March 23 in an electorate it regards as “gettable”.
The confirmation came after the Herald received a copy of the agenda for the Liberal Party state council in Nelson Bay on August 25 listing Cr Abbott as the “candidate for Port Stephens”.
Party sources said Cr Abbott was the only nominee for pre-selection in a seat the Liberals lost to Ms Washington in 2015 with a 19.5 per cent swing. Ms Washington beat Ken Jordan to reclaim Port Stephens for Labor for the first time since Craig Baumann won it in 2007.
Mr Baumann quit the party in 2015 after admitting to ICAC that he had taken secret donations from developers in 2007 and written sham invoices to cover them up.
Cr Abbott, who ran unsuccessfully against Sharon Claydon in the federal seat of Newcastle in 2013, is expecting her first child in October.
Cr Abbott, the Liberals’ Port Stephens branch president, sits on Port Stephens Council as an independent.
“Standing as an independent gives me the best of both worlds as it means that I am not tied by Liberal Party policy … it provides me the freedom to debate and vote as I please,” she said in a media interview before last year’s council elections.
On Monday, she reiterated her belief that the government had erred in selling the Mambo land in 2016.
“I wanted to run [for council] as a Liberal Party candidate, but the party didn’t endorse candidates,” she said.
“Now, having been on the council for 10 months, it is kind of great to just be able to put the community at the forefront of your mind. You don’t have to check anything.
“I’ve said to the Liberal Party my position on Mambo is not changing; you need to get this back, and compulsory acquisition is the way to go.”
She said she had been “a little bit in the dark” about the pre-selection process before being contacted on Monday by the Herald.
“I just wanted to nominate, so I nominated, and obviously the party have endorsed me.”
The Herald reported in 2015 that the process that led to Mr Jordan’s pre-selection over Cr Abbott had caused acrimony in the party’s Port Stephens branch, including accusations that Cr Abbott had been “pressured to back out since the get-go”.
Mr Jordan’s candidacy had been backed by Mr Baumann, controversional former mayor Bruce MacKenzie and former federal member for Paterson Bob Baldwin.
The party is holding its state conference in the electorate in what is being interpreted as an effort to boost Cr Abbott’s chances of unseating Ms Washington on March 23.
Cr Abbott posed for photographs with Gladys Berejiklian in June when the premier was in Tea Gardens to announce a million-dollar refurbishment of the local police station.
The Liberals have not opened pre-selection nominations in other Hunter electorates.
