SYDNEY radio broadcaster Alan Jones has delivered a brutal assessment of the Nationals if they choose to betray their rural voter base when choosing political candidates.
Speaking today ahead of a party pre-selection meeting to determine a replacement for retired NSW politician Duncan Gay, Mr Jones warned about the perils of selecting Greg Dezman – a former state deputy-director and adviser to former party leader Troy Grant.
He said the rural based political outfit would be “signing a death warrant, at the next election” if Mr Dezman was chosen.
The warning came ahead of a pre-selection meeting in Sydney were 16 candidates will make a bid for pre-selection, to try and replace Mr Gay.
Mr Gay retired earlier this year from the NSW Legislative Council after he was elected in 1988.
“Can I just say this firmly - one day it’s the Liberal Party – today it’s the National Party,” Mr Jones said.
“That very good Nationals MP Duncan Gay has left the parliament.
“Now the National Party had better be careful here.
“If they start playing the Liberal Party game they’ll cop the Liberal Party treatment.
“This is the National Party representing supposedly people west of the Great Dividing Range - rural interests.”
Mr Jones said he was informed Mr Dezman was the favourite in the pre-selection contest and how someone from Western Sydney, who was once on the Blacktown City Council “even qualifies to represent the bush I’ve got no idea”.
“The closest he got to rural NSW I’m told is in a poorly taught geography lesson, when someone told him there was something west of the Great Dividing Range,” he said.
Mr Jones said Mr Dezman and “another lefty in the Nationals” and alleged upper house member Ben Franklin, “the global warming alarmist” were behind the banning of the greyhounds.
He said former leader Troy Grant “your number’s in the frame here”.
“How this bloke finished up as Troy Grant’s chief of staff I’ve got no idea,” he said.
Mr Jones also questioned how Mr Grant had listened to Mr Dezman “which ended up in the ban on greyhound racing”.
“I’ve got no idea but it caused a thrashing of course for the Coalition in the Orange by-election,” he said.
“It cost Troy Grant his job as leader of the National Party and yet I’m told that the bloke advising him Dezman, and Franklin haven’t given up on the greyhound racing ban even now.”
Mr Jones said current NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro “needs to put his foot down”.
“There are outstanding candidates who are fair dinkum representatives of West of the Great Dividing Range,” he said.
“One of them is a bloke named Wes Fang from Wagga.
“Wes is a local business man - he’s a great bloke – a former pilot.
“The National Party’s on notice – if you start replacing Duncan Gay with a bloke named Dezman, then all hell will break loose and you’ll be signing a death warrant, at the next election.”
Mr Jones said “if by some accident this bloke is chosen” the Nationals’ head office should reject the nomination.
“The left have been mobilising, even in the National Party,” he said.
“The march through institutions.
“The left have taken over the Liberal Party and they’ve got it by the throat and now you can’t believe the National Party.
“And this bloke Greg Dezman should not be advising Troy Grant, the former leader of the National Party and should not be a member of parliament.
“How anyone could think this bloke has anything in common with the National Party constituency, I have no idea.
“This nonsense has got to be stopped – it’s beyond belief.”
NSW Nationals state director Nathan Quigley declined to comment, ahead of the pre-selection meeting.
But one party member who asked not to be named said it was “ridiculous” to say Mr Dezman or Mr Franklin were the architects of the greyhound racing ban, that was eventually overturned by the NSW government after public and media backlash.
The source also said it was “not the Nationals’ way” to use the media to try and gain leverage in pre-selection contests but did not believe Mr Fang was behind providing any information to Mr Jones.