Labor’s Hagarty to face off with Fedeli in Leppington battle

Nathan Hagarty was hoping to become Liverpool mayor at the local council elections almost a year ago.

While he was elected to council, the mayorship dream did not become reality.

But now he’s poised to become the state MP for the newest seat in NSW, Leppington, cobbled together from bits of Camden, Liverpool and Campbelltown.

Last Saturday, Cr Hagarty, pictured above, won the Labor Party preselection battle after receiving 75 percent of the votes cast by branch members.

It means that on Saturday, March 25, 2023, he will face off against Therese Fedeli, the current Liberal Party mayor of Camden.

Ms Fedeli’s preselection victory was even easier than Cr Hagarty’s – she is believed to have been endorsed as the party candidate unopposed.

The Hagarty preselection is not the last card in the pre-election moves by the major parties.

The Liberal Party is yet to nominate its candidate for Liverpool to take on another local Labor councillor, Charisma Kaliyanda, pictured.

Cr Kaliyanda was endorsed by the Labor Party following the somewhat surprising announcement that sitting member Paul Lynch was quitting politics after almost 30 years as the member for Liverpool.

The Liberal Party has even bigger problems in the marginal seat of Holsworthy after Tina Ayyad, the wife of Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun defeated sitting member Melanie Gibbons 24-12 in a preselection ballot last week.

It is believed the party is looking for an opportunity to install Ms Gibbons in the Upper House.

Ned Mannoun on the other hand is understood to have knocked back the opportunity to run as the Liberal candidate in Liverpool.

Once all the preselection dominoes have fallen, politics will take a back seat to the festive season, before returning with gusto in the middle of January.