Mr Hawke is the Prime Minister’s representative on the state executive and has a formal role in the party constitution including a position on the nomination review committee that vets candidates.
In a sign of their frustration,some state executive members discussed the option of asking Mr Morrison to nominate an alternative representative to replace Mr Hawke.
One Liberal said Mr Morrison “should know better” than to allow the delays given he was a state director of the NSW Liberals before he entered federal Parliament.
State executive members are examining an option that would allow the committee to meet even if Mr Hawke declined to attend,giving him an ultimatum because decisions would be made without the Prime Minister being represented.
The advice states that the nomination review committee would have a quorum with only three of its four members in attendance.
That option is being pursued in parallel with efforts to persuade Mr Morrison and Mr Hawke to end the impasse by sending the Immigration Minister to a series of meetings within days to clear the way for preselection ballots in each of the key seats.
The nomination review committee is meant to be formed for each electorate and consists of state president Philip Ruddock,state director Chris Stone,the Prime Minister or his representative and the head of the Liberal Party in that electorate.
Party members were hopeful on Thursday that Mr Hawke would finally agree to attend the meetings so preselections could be held for the marginal seats.
About 20 nomination review committees are yet to be resolved,although only some of them are for marginal seats. Mr Hawke told a state executive meeting last Friday that he would attend the nomination meetings soon,raising the prospect of formal decisions to clear the way for candidate selections that would give party members a say.
The state division has held six state preselections during the time the federal ballots have been stalled,heightening suspicions that Mr Hawke was dragging out the process in order to build the case for a federal intervention.
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Mr Morrison wants Environment Minister Sussan Ley confirmed in her electorate of Farrer,where the conservatives have mounted a challenge with their candidate,Christian Ellis.
Mr Hawke is seeking to block attempts to challenge him in his seat of Mitchell,where former army officer Michael Abrahams has support from conservative members.
While Liberal vice president Teena McQueen has told colleagues she wants Alex Dore installed as the candidate for Hughes,the moderate wing of the party is backing Jenny Ware.
Mr Morrison has backed a sitting state MP,Melanie Gibbons,for Hughes but this has angered state premier Dominic Perrottet because her move to federal Parliament would trigger another state by-election.
Others fear the decision on Hughes has come too late and could give former Liberal Craig Kelly an advantage in his campaign to hold the seat as parliamentary leader of Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party.
Potentialcontenders in Bennelong include former political adviser Gisele Kapterian and City of Sydney councillor Craig Chung.
The long deadlock over candidate selection led one contender,Jane Buncle,towithdraw this week from the race for Warringah,leading some Liberals to say the party had “gifted” the seat to Ms Steggall.
The delay has also prevented the party from choosing a candidate for Eden-Monaro,helping Labor MP Kristy McBain hold the seat.
The contest to represent the party in Dobell includes cardiologist Michael Feneley and Pentecostal preacher Jemima Gleeson.