Richard Di Natale’s former chief of staff, Cate Faehrmann, has won a supreme court bid against the Greens’ decision to block her preselection for New South Wales parliament.

The ruling paves the way for Faehrmann to stand to fill the casual vacancy left by the departing Mehreen Faruqi, and is a significant development in the infighting plaguing the Greens.

It has also prompted strong words from her ally, Justin Field, a NSW MP, who accused the party bureaucracy of running “internal political agendas” in blocking Faehrmann’s candidacy. Field said democratic reforms in the NSW Greens were “now becoming more urgent”.

“I’m concerned at what appears to be the party bureaucracy running internal political agendas rather than acting in the overall interest of the Greens and grassroots democracy,” he told Guardian Australia. “This approach is deeply divisive, distresses members and costs the party financially.”

“I’m sure many members will be deeply disappointed to hear the arguments made in court by the party to try to exclude a member from the preselection.”

Faehrmann was initially blocked from contention for Faruqi’s upper house seat in NSW, because she recently held membership of the Victorian Greens.



The NSW party deemed she should serve a three-month “provisional” period in NSW after transferring from Victoria. The decision effectively took Faehrmann out of the race. Provisional members are not eligible for preselection and the cutoff to nominate for Faruqi’s seat was 9 April.

Faehrmann took the matter to the NSW supreme court, seeking an urgent hearing to determine her eligibility before the looming cutoff.

The chief judge in equity, Julie Ward, found in her favour on Wednesday morning. She ordered that the NSW Greens: “Remove any recording of the plaintiff on the membership list as a ‘provisional’ member and to record the plaintiff as a financial member of the political party known as the Greens NSW.”

Faehrmann later issued a statement saying the ruling “reinforced the primacy of grassroots democracy” in the Greens.

“This ruling now means that all financial members from another state who move to NSW and transfer their membership won’t lose their rights as members,” she said.

“This is an important principle of equity and fairness that was built into the Australian Greens constitution decades ago. It is a win for grassroots democracy.”

During the hearing, the Greens NSW had argued the dispute should never have come to the supreme court. They argued it should have been dealt with privately.

Ward said the urgency of the case made that impossible.

“It is obvious in my opinion that it would have been preferable for the disputants to have been able to resolve their dispute consensually by way of mediation rather than to incur the expense (and to invite the prospect of public comment) that follows inexorably from the invocation of the court’s processes,” Ward wrote.

“However, a highly relevant factor in this regard is the timing issue.”

Faehrmann has a long history with the NSW Greens. She previously held a seat in NSW parliament between September 2010 and June 2013, and joined Greens NSW in January 2004, but had moved to Victoria to take up her job with Di Natale.

In a statement distributed to members, the Greens NSW convenor, Debbie Gibson, accepted the court’s decision but said it was “regrettable” that legal action was taken. Gibson said the Greens had attempted to resolve it out of court. She said the party had simply applied long-standing principles to Faehrmann.

“The party’s decision to defend the action was based on independent legal advice that concluded the correct status of an individual from interstate is that of a provisional member,” Gibson wrote.

“The legal advice confirmed a long-standing practice of the Greens NSW that had been consistently applied to interstate transfers. Given this advice, we believed it was beyond the power of the committee of management to overturn our existing practice.”

She argued that her provisional period should be counted as the three months since she first paid membership fees to the NSW party, which had long since expired.



In her statement, Faehrmann said the party’s founders would have wanted to encourage full participation by members and not disadvantage those who move interstate to serve its interests.

“I first joined the NSW Greens in 2003 and have poured my heart and soul into the Greens for nearly two decades. It’s why I felt I had to stand up and defend our grassroots democracy,” she said.

Faehrmann previously told Guardian Australia she had launched the court action reluctantly and the case was an “unnecessary distraction”.

“I would have much preferred that this had been resolved without the need to go to court,” Faehrmann said last month.

“It’s an unnecessary distraction at a time when we should be focusing 100% of our efforts on the upcoming federal and state elections.”