Matt Johnston: Meaningful policy could help Liberals recover from disastrous week

To spend almost a week mired in scandal rather than selling messages to voters less than four months before polling day is an unmitigated disaster for the Liberals, but recovery is possible.

Victorian Liberal MPs began the week with a pep in their step.

They had spent the weekend finalising policy and sharpening attacks on Labor’s budget woes and integrity issues.

This saw the Coalition drop the East West Link because the state can’t afford to pay for it alone, and the Albanese government had told the opposition to go jump.

Adding to net debt that is set to hit $167.5bn within four years was not an option.

Plans to bolster corruption laws in Victoria, coming off the back of another scathing report on Labor’s misuse of taxpayer funds by the state’s integrity watchdogs, were also released.

One Liberal frontbencher said everyone was geared up for a big week, with state parliament finally returning after a lengthy winter break.

Instead, they were bludgeoned by a report in The Age on Tuesday about dodgy “donations’’ being solicited by Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s most senior staff member, Mitch Catlin.

Catlin had approached a wealthy donor for cash to be paid into his private marketing business, outside his taxpayer-funded salary.

Matthew Guy’s chief of staff, Mitch Catlin, resigned this week.

Liberals surmise that this was to effectively top up his pay packet, which is below what he would have earned in the private sector.

It’s less clear what benefit – if any – the donor would have received if the deal had gone ahead.

Some MPs speculated that it was like cheating the salary cap in the AFL when players were paid outside their footy club.

They compare it to Chris Judd getting a third-party deal with packaging giant Visy when he was recruited by Carlton.

The reason it is hard to know if this comparison is accurate is because crucial details about the dodgy proposal are still missing.

According to the first version of the Catlin story, the newly installed chief of staff wanted Guy to forward a proposed “contract” to billionaire businessman Jonathan Munz.

Guy said he had stopped Catlin’s proposal there and then, and the contract was never forwarded.

Munz later said, however, that Catlin had sent him an “unsolicited” email for payments, which was rejected immediately.

Most MPs think there are two possibilities to explain the slightly jarring versions.

Either Catlin went rogue after Guy declined to assist him in his pursuit of top-up payments, or he went to Guy after being rejected by Munz.

Guy has refused to explain the discrepancy, and on Thursday insisted he couldn’t comment because the matter was before police and integrity bodies – before taking questions on the matter for what seemed like half an hour.

It’s a curious habit of Guy’s to hold lengthy press conference but still leave questions unanswered, ensuring the questions keep on coming for days.

Labor, which knows a thing or two about anti-corruption probes in this state, can’t believe its luck.

Last week, Labor was castigated by the Ombudsman and the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission over ministers using public resources for party means, and the Coalition promised to focus on integrity in the lead-up to the election.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy found his party in the middle of a donor scandal. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The risk with this strategy, Labor and Blind Freddy point out, is that voters would tend to remember – or be reminded of – Guy’s previous brushes with integrity, including when he dined with an alleged mafia figure at a lobster restaurant.

The Liberals’ review of their 2018 election thumping attributed some of the blame to that story, which was leaked from inside the party and rocked Guy’s confidence and strategy.

This issue is not just a risk now, but a certainty.

Guy has gone from fighting Labor on this issue with one hand tied behind his back, to having both arms pinned.

The Catlin affair may not have such grave consequences – at least in terms of public perception – but it may not be the only bombshell leak to emerge.

In the process, Labor is once again left to colour in a public portrait of Guy, with the Liberals looking on glumly.

Whenever Daniel Andrews gets hit by scandal – which happens fairly regularly – he can spin the wheels of government and don a hard hat to get on with things that resonate with voters.

In opposition, it is more difficult to change the conversation.

It’s also why some Liberals had hoped more policy and substance would be on the table by now, to give Guy something to focus on.

To spend almost a week mired in scandal rather than selling messages to voters less than four months before polling day is an unmitigated disaster.

The Coalition needs to swiftly change course, and the best way to do that is with meaningful policy that separates the Liberals and Nationals from Labor.

Transport and money matters were good places to start last weekend.

More is required, and soon.