Further to our news in Monday's column that former ANZ Banking Group chairman Charles Goode and Rupert Murdoch's brother-in-law John Calvert-Jones had both abruptly resigned as directors of Vapold, the Victorian Liberal Party's investment company (in effect, its finance committee incorporated) at its Friday board meeting:

Presumably the latest escalation – and there have been a few in this epic standoff – is a continuation of the dispute Calvert-Jones and former Business Council president Hugh Morgan is having with Michael Kroger. Contrary to the reported recommendations of a (withheld) review of the $1.5 million fraud perpetrated by the Liberals' former state director Damien Mantach, Kroger is both party president and chairman of its finance committee. Thus, through their oversight of the wealthy Cormack Foundation, the Melbourne establishment is withholding money Kroger desperately needs to run 104 Exhibition Street.