Perrottet desperately wanted to save Gibbons after she wasurged by former prime minister Scott Morrison to run for the federal seat of Hughes,but then convinced by the party to give up her Canberra ambitionsso that she did not put her safe NSW seat at risk.
Perrottet enticed Gibbons to stay in state politics by promising her a cabinet spot. However,the minister-in-waiting was forced out of the lower house after 11 years following a preselection loss to Tina Ayyad,who is married to Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun.
A Liberal Party source not permitted to speak on the record said Gibbons’ political career could not be saved because the factions “would have gone to war”. The source said Gibbons did not have sufficient backing of any faction to win a spot.
Families Minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones – who had wanted to run in the lower house seat of Pittwater – will lead the upper house ticket,while two other women including Susan Carter and Jean Haynes will secure two likely winnable positions.
The male Liberal MPs who will not be preselected are upper house president Matthew Mason-Cox and backbenchers Lou Amato and Shayne Mallard.
The leader of the moderate faction and Treasurer Matt Kean said the factions had worked together to reach an agreement that would increase the number of Liberal women in parliament.