Senior Liberals know who threw the hand grenade to try to bring down Matthew Guy

Senior Liberals know who tossed the hand grenade, but are fearful of what else might lob their way if they talk, four months out from an election.

Senior Liberals know who tossed the handgrenade trying to bring down Matthew Guy’s leadership, but they’re not talking. Yet.

Who is the bomb thrower in the Victorian Liberal Party trying to bring down the leadership of Matthew Guy?

The ol’ whodunit may have started out as a question. But a few days is a long time in politics, especially when the smelly stuff hits the fan.

Senior Liberals know who tossed the hand grenade, but they are fearful of what else might lob their way four months out from an election.

They believe a name was blacked out on an email sent to a journalist outlining a plan to sweeten the salary of the position as the Liberal leader’s chief of staff.

Mitch Catlin, who reportedly sent the email to Guy 10 months ago asking him to forward it to a wealthy Liberal donor, resigned rather than drag the Liberal leadership through the mud in campaign mode.

The email asking Guy to forward the request was sent to Guy’s private hotmail account before Catlin took the job.

After a successful corporate career now needing a major reboot, it is understood Catlin was seeking a salary top-up from a Liberal supporter rather than taxpayers, as suggested in the recruitment phase.

Mitch Catlin (right) reportedly sent the now-leaked email to Liberal leader Matthew Guy.

In any case, it wasn’t acted upon. Guy didn’t forward the request for billionaire Liberal donor Johnathan Munz to kick in about $100,000 to sweeten the pot.

Munz says he rejected the request out of hand when he received it and had no idea who else might have been on the mailing list. Page 13 has made some calls and found no one else was on the so-called mailing list.

The Opposition leader’s answer to all this is that no action was ever taken on the idea of topping up the $140,000 taxpayer-funded job with money from Munz.

Meanwhile, senior Liberals are staggering about like the victims of a car crash, as Guy points out that it is the Labor Government that rorted the public purse during the Red Shirts saga.

Senior Liberals regard Catlin as being the victim of an act of political bastardry.

Why not drop the name of the leaker into the hot mess they have created? That one is yet to play out.