Opposition Leader Brad Battin committed to winning state election after tumultuous first six months
Opposition Leader Brad Battin has opened up on the tumultuous first six months of his leadership and his determination to unite the Liberal Party ahead of next year’s crucial state election.
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It’s been a tumultuous first six months for Opposition Leader Brad Battin.
Once asked what knocks a government off course former UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously said: “Events, dear boy, events”.
From his controversial cruise holiday, to his deputy being embroiled in a parliamentary allowances scandal, internal turmoil inside his party room, factional warfare and the never-ending saga that is the ongoing feud between John Pesutto and Moira Deeming, events have made the first six months of Battin’s leadership a rough ride.
Despite best efforts and intentions the party has slipped backwards in the polls, only narrowly, for the first time in more than 12 months and in recent weeks serious questions about whether he will lead the party to next year’s November election have been raised among MPs and party members.
There’s no plan to topple him, numbers aren’t being counted, and talk of change right now is only hypothetical.
But Battin accepts the talk is happening and says while frustrating, it makes no difference to how he tackles his job.
Battin has the will, the belief, and the want to succeed in spades, and believes his Opposition has become increasingly effective, even if admitting his focus couldn’t have been wholly on the task of forming government over the past six months.
Most of that was because of inherited, rather than created, problems.
Less than 24 hours after he helped orchestrate a deal to save the political career of John Pesutto – via a $1.55m Liberal Party loan that will allow him to pay the $2.3m he owes Moira Deeming and avoid bankruptcy – Battin told the Sunday Herald Sun he can finally focus on winning government.
“It’s now time to start talking about our vision and what we want to see for Victoria,” he said.
“We know that Victoria has struggled for far too long under this Labor government.
“We want to return Victoria to what it should be, which is to have fairness, opportunity and safety for everyone.
“And I think it’s really important that we start to get back to the things that are important to people at home.”
Battin knows his party has for too long failed to resonate with Victorians as its MPs waged war on each other instead of on the Labor government.
But he feels there’s been a shift under his watch, and points to a series of policy backflips by Jacinta Allan to prove his point.
“A good opposition obviously makes a more accountable government and we can already see we’re having an impact,” he said.
“They’re reversing some of their bail laws because they know we’re holding them to account. “We are being more effective, and I think the team knows that.
“So now we just got to get it so the only thing we’re talking about is going to the next election.”
The Coalition need to win 16 seats, and lose none, to form government at the 2026 election which will take massive swings against Labor across the state.
A perceived policy vacuum remains a major stumbling block in achieving that plan.
For years the Liberals have defined themselves by what they oppose rather than what they stand for.
Battin talks in broad statements about his vision for Victoria, but little by way of detailed policy has been put forward, to the frustration of some of his party room.
Battin is also facing a generational problem.
Young voters have all but turned away from the Liberals because they see a party fixated on culture wars and nostalgia, not cost of living or climate.
Battin knows the Liberals won’t win again until they reconnect with voters under 40, and his challenge his dragging some of his party room with him.
He sees housing and cost of living as election winning issues, followed by crime.
“We want to unlock the opportunity for home ownership. We know we’re going to grow the economy, whether that’s via cutting taxes or in creating opportunities for investment,” he said.
“We want to reduce the cost of living … and make sure we can get gas back into the market.
“Education is a big issue, and the health system, we’re seeing it daily, people are genuinely dying now because of the state of the health system.’
To keep on message and sell his Opposition as a viable alternative government Battin knows he needs to unite his team – a problem which has plagued many of his predecessors.
He plans to do it by meeting with each and every MP in his stable and talking to them about their goals for government.
“I will speak to every single member and as when you first came into parliament, what did you say in your maiden speech, what were you going to deliver and can you do it from opposition?
“If the answer is no, then it’s time to focus on getting into government.
“I believe that once we’ve had the conversations with people and they can get the realignment, I think people want to win.
“People in our party are sick of not just being in opposition, but sick of the worst government in Australia’s history.
“You’ve got to find the common goal. It’s like any football club, any sports team, any business.”
That goal, forming government, has been seemingly too lofty an ambition to unite the team for much of the past decade, but Battin has faith he can turn that around.
Even if he is facing accusations of picking sides in the feud between Pesutto and Deeming – a claim he vehemently rejects.
The perception has put him off-side with a number of colleagues who he will need to placate if he stands any chance of party unity moving forward.
Asked if he wants to see Mrs Deeming preselected to run in 2026 – a move which would all but secure her a second term in parliament – Battin says only that he wants to take his current team to the next election. It is a tacit endorsement.
“I know the reasons I got into politics, I know the things I want to deliver, and I can’t do them from opposition,” he says.
“Sometimes it just takes that reminder again to say, we’ve only got 16 months. It is time now to start focusing on those outcomes, and to get those outcomes you need to win an election.”
Originally published as Opposition Leader Brad Battin committed to winning state election after tumultuous first six months
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