Disability campaigner Hollie Hughes has toppled sitting Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells to take out top spot on the party's NSW Senate ticket.
Hughes, an autism support advocate based in Moree, held off the International Development Minister in a tight contest on Saturday to claim first place in a preselection ballot.
Fierravanti-Wells is the only sitting NSW Liberal senator up for re-election this year.
There is some speculation Ms Hughes could relinquish top spot and swap places with Senator Fierravanti-Wells, but this has not been confirmed.
Jim Molan, a retired army general who oversaw military operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, will sit behind them in third place.
Strathfield mayor Sang Ok rounds out the NSW Liberals senate ticket, with veteran senator Bill Heffernan poised to retire after 20 years in parliament.
The preselection order will need to be endorsed by the party's state executive, which is expected to take place next week.
Whoever wins preselection will join the Nationals' Fiona Nash, the rural health minister, and helicopter pilot Wes Fang on the coalition ticket.
Earlier on Saturday, former Human Rights Commissioner Tim Wilson won a hotly-contested party battle to be selected as the Liberal candidate in the Victorian seat of Goldstein.
Wilson edged out former aid worker Dr Denis Dragovic and Georgina Downer, the daughter of former federal MP Alexander Downer, to stand in the seat held by outgoing Trade Minister Andrew Robb.
Liberal members cast their votes in the high-profile tussle at a party convention in Brighton, in the heart of the blue-ribbon electorate, on Saturday afternoon.
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