Back our members, Abbott tells PM

TONY Abbott has called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to back moves to let Liberal Party members directly elect candidates.

Mr Abbott warned action was needed “rather than just saying the right things and shirking a fight because it’s not convenient to upset the string-pullers and manipulators”.

The former PM’s comments come weeks before a factional showdown where the party’s conservative and moderate wings will attempt to hash out a long-simmering dispute about how candidates are chosen.

Mr Abbott and Cities Minister Angus Taylor will corral the conservative wing to push for the so-called “one member, one vote” reforms at a NSW Liberal constitutional convention late next month, in an event described as a “Call to arms for the forgotten people of our party”.

“If the NSW Liberal Party is not to suffer mass resignations or widescale defections . . . it really has to face up to the fact that there is no respectable argument whatsoever against the principle of giving every member a vote in preselections and for other party positions,” Mr Abbott said.

“Any attempt to fudge this or to delay it will persuade people that the party is incapable of responding to its own members. It’s vital that all the people who have said they support democratic reform — and that means me, John Howard, Mike Baird, and Malcolm Turnbull — stand up and be counted on this issue.’’