Whilst deeply saddened by this decision and the poor reasons he has offered to me for doing this, this issue must be resolved quickly for the good of the Government.
My community is everything to me and I will be contesting the seat of Castle Hill at the next election and will continue to work hard on behalf of my local community.
Under no circumstance will I run away from the good people of Castle Hill who have shown such loyalty to myself and my family over the past decade and a half, giving me one of the strongest margins in NSW.
In our call I reminded Dominic that he is currently the Deputy Leader of the NSW Liberal Party, a position I supported him to achieve.
Speaking with many of my colleagues in the last 24 hours I believe there is deep concern across the Government at the potential for this contest to cause ongoing instability.
There are many who believe as I do that the position of the Deputy Leader is to provide stability and leadership to both our parliamentary party and the state of NSW.
Given Dominic is challenging myself as both a fellow Member of Parliament and a Ministerial colleague I believe it is untenable for him to remain as the Deputy Leader in those circumstances. This is a widely shared view.
This is why I asked Dominic to step down from the position of Deputy Leader in order for our party to choose a responsible person to undertake this role. I also offered that if he was to resign from Cabinet I would also resign from Cabinet whilst this battle rages over the next three months and give our colleagues clear air.
Dominic declined to resign as Deputy Leader or from cabinet so from today our Government will have two of its senior ministers fighting for months, for no obvious reason.
I have also advised Dominic that if he fails to step down from the position of Deputy Liberal Leader for the good of the Government I will have no other alternative but to move a motion to spill this position in the party room next Tuesday morning.
This will allow my colleagues the chance to elect a person in this role who can provide our Premier with stability in coming months. I have the support of many colleagues to proceed with this course of action.
I want to express to the people of Castle Hill my regret at this turn of events and my determination to continue to serve them as their local member in the years ahead.
