Keeping a team together seems to be a bit of a challenge for Malcolm Turnbull. Remember his performance at the NSW Liberal Party Conference just 3 months ago?

Strife for Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal moderates flex muscles

THE AUSTRALIAN

A factional brawl within the Liberal Party risks engulfing Malcolm Turnbull in the lead-up to this year’s election, as his emboldened moderate faction prepares to challenge key supporters of Tony Abbott for preselection.

Right-aligned senator Con­cetta Fierravanti-Wells and Craig Kelly, MP for the Sydney seat of Hughes, are almost certain to face challenges from the moderate faction of the party, while fellow ­Abbott supporter and conser­vative rising star Angus Taylor is also at “serious risk” of losing his seat if moderate convert Russell Matheson launches a challenge.

The factional posturing is also expected to see challenges against Bronwyn Bishop in Mackellar, Philip Ruddock in Berowra and Ann Sudmalis in Gilmore, while veteran senator Bill Heffernan is under pressure to retire and make way for the party’s country vice-president, Hollie Hughes.

With at least half a dozen sitting members facing preselection challenges when nominations open next week, Liberal sources have told The Australian the Prime Minister may need to intervene to prevent a factional blow-up in his home state of NSW.

“It would be factionalism trumping reality and if that starts to happen, we end up a bit like the Labor Party,” one senior Liberal said. “People are very sensitive about the issue, and if it goes ahead, the whole party suffers. It would be less than 30 people in a handful of branches overriding what 90 per cent of the party wants. The party cannot allow that to happen.”

Read more at The Australian

Here's a podcast Jason Morrison and I did on the day of the last NSW Liberal State Conference - that would be the Liberal Party Without Factions According to Malcolm.