John Pesutto has the tough job of bringing together his party room
New Victorian Liberals leader John Pesutto takes the reins of the party as it faces an existential crisis and he has two unenviable challenges ahead of him.
Opinion
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The task facing John Pesutto is enormous.
He takes the reins of the Liberal Party as it faces an existential crisis, fresh off the back of its third election loss.
He is the fifth leader since the party were last in government, and if he can’t make serious inroads quickly he knows he won’t be the last before they’re running the show again.
He will have two key tasks: rebuild the Liberal Party, and unite his parliamentary colleagues.
Which is harder remains to be seen, but both are unenviable challenges.
But after four years away from politics Pesutto brings a fresh perspective.
He also brings with him the experience of transforming devastating loss into success — let’s not forget this is the man who lost his safe seat live on television.
Not only is he back in parliament after a hard-fought campaign, he is leading his party.
He knows what it means to fight back and win against the odds.
Pesutto is a mainstream politician, brings a positive outlook and is described by those who have worked with quite simply as “normal”.
He’s unlikely to go to war with the climate change brigade and won’t get bogged down with Christian culture wars.
Both important things if he is to bring together his party room.
Which he will need to do, given of the 33 people who voted in the leadership ballot, 16 voted against him.
He says he wants to see more diversity, including more women, in the party.
He says he wants to reach every part of the state, and broaden the party’s appeal across all demographics.
He says he wants to rebuild the party’s organisation, improve the culture, and develop a winning psychology.
It is now up to him to do what he says — something that has troubled Liberal leaders past.
And Pesutto will fall into the same trap unless he can unite his party, and avoid the pitfall of having to continually appease warring factions.
Within minutes of his leadership being announced, the first shots had been fired by his opponents.
In his concession speech Pesutto’s challenger, Brad Battin, urged his colleagues to fall into line behind the new leader.
But in doing so he appeared to take a pot shot at deputy leader David Southwick’s decision to remove Liberal Party branding from his campaign material.
Battin didn’t name Southwick, but his comments were perceived as a very targeted shot at the deputy.
Battin’s supporters included Ryan Smith and Richard Riordan: all were involved in plots to remove former leader Michael O’Brien.
Pesutto says he can win the 2026 election.
If he can’t bring his team into line, he might not get the chance.
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