Chris O'Keefe on why liberal paperwork mistake is bad news for everyone 04:27

Now, it's unfathomable to me and to any reasonable person that the Liberal Party missed the deadline to put the paperwork in for its candidates for the local council elections. Unfathomable. But I just want to take a step back here. We've all been kind of laughing about it, just how ridiculous the whole thing is. But with no Liberals to vote,

The councils will either be totally controlled by the Labor Party or in some instances totally controlled by the Independents, Teals and Greens. Now that is not a good thing. And I'll tell you why. So if you live on the Northern Beaches, here's a great example. Northern Beaches, big, big local council. Have a listen to this. At the council elections in a few weeks' time, these are your options on who to vote for. These will be your representatives, right? If you live in the Curl Curl Ward,

You have the Greens or Jolene Hackman's ticket. And Jolene Hackman ran as a teal in Manly. So the Greens or a teal. One of two. That's all you've got to vote for. The French's Forest Ward. In French's Forest, you have either independent Sue Hines. Now, she's the mayor. She currently is proposing an Indigenous voice to council. Remember that? Well, you can vote for her or you can vote for the Greens' Ethan Hernjack.

He's a 20-year-old university student. Greens. Where else can we look at? Manly's a bit better. You've got Sarah Gratton. She's an independent works for Lifeline. Zali Steggles-backed Candy Bingham. You've got a 22-year-old self-employed artist and activist who's running for the Greens and a lone Labor candidate in Manly.

Narrabeen's got two independents and Pitwater, listen to this, Pitwater's got an independent and a green in Miranda Corsi who lobbied council to boycott Australia Day celebrations and instead hold commemorations and honour First Nations people's resistance. Now, ladies and gentlemen, there is not a conservative to be found from the Spit Bridge to Palm Beach. And it will be like this for four years.

thanks to the Liberal Party's mismanagement. Now that to me is frightening. The Independents and the Greens, they'll want net zero by Christmas. There'll be no pushback at all from anybody with reasonable mind. And they have four years to come up with whatever wacky schemes they want to come up with. And again, nobody on council will be opposing it because you don't have the option to vote for anyone to oppose it.

Lane Cove has a mixture of Greens, Labor, Independent. Scott Bennison, he's the only independent Conservative now after he left the Liberal Party. You've got Penrith. They've had Liberal mayors before. Penrith Council's been under Liberal control in the past. Forget it now. You've got Wollongong and Shoalhaven. They'll return to being held in an iron grip by the Labor Party.

Where George's River, North Sydney, Canterbury, Bankstown, Maitland, they'll also have four years where a Liberal council will be impossible. Almost zero influence in all of these areas. Now, if we thought it was difficult to get a DA through now, how will it be when the Greens and the Teals ask for, I don't know, a marsupial report so you can build a back shed? It's what's coming.

And I know I'm being flippant, but there are serious questions about political balance in major Sydney councils for the next four years. And I would just say this to the men's government. They've all been doing backflips about it, and rightly so. It's like winning Lotto, right? They've just been handed all these councils. I will say this to the men's government. They've got three years before they go to the ballot box. They've done very little as a government.

But their entire platform hinges on building houses, right? Hinges on building houses. Well, if you've got Teals, Greens and certain elements of the Labor Party now controlling major councils in areas where you need to build houses, how do you think that's going to go? I just think this is bad news for all of us, not just the Liberal Party.