Rita Panahi: Revamped Liberal Party needs to show real fight in next election battle

The Liberal Party cannot rely on Dan’s shambolic pandemic response to secure the election; they need to be ready to give Victorians a real choice.

Whoever leads the Coalition in the next state election faces a gargantuan challenge.

Dan Andrews’ inept performance throughout the pandemic, the massive budget blowouts on major projects and the fact that Victoria has accumulated the biggest state government debt – and by some margin – in the country will not stop Labor winning again.

The Premier may have never held a job outside of politics and may have taken close to six years to complete an arts degree but where he excels, above all others in this state, is in fighting and winning.

Politics is all he knows and he’s terribly good at it; not so good at executing sound policy or taking responsibility for disastrous decisions but Andrews is unparalleled in setting and selling a narrative.

“Scotty from marketing” could only dream of having Andrews’ political nous.

Andrews never wastes a crisis. Whether it’s Covid-19 or Labor’s branch-stacking fiasco, he shrewdly uses each and every calamity to strengthen his power base.

Compare that to the politically inept Liberals. They regularly play dead on a range of issues where they can land some easy blows on the Andrews government from the kooky birth certificate legislation to the radical transgender policies included in the benign-sounding “anti-conversion bill” to business-destroying state government taxes.

These issues are not vote-changers for the masses but they present an opportunity to show how radically left Labor has become in power and for the opposition to score easy wins in areas where they are firmly in the majority.

Whether it’s Covid-19 or Labor’s branch-stacking fiasco, the Premier shrewdly uses each and every calamity to strengthen his power base. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

Core issues including the economy, jobs, health, education and energy present a more difficult propositions in Victoria and the Coalition must clearly differentiate themselves from Labor.

The Liberals have only been in power for four out of the past 23 years, winning one election out of the past five. In the past 40 years Labor has dominated Victorian politics, ruling for almost 30 years in total.

Not only has the ALP reigned supreme at the polling booth, it has methodically appointed its people to every key position possible.

Labor runs this state and when a Coalition government is elected it will have to fight a bureaucracy working against its agenda.

On Monday afternoon leadership challenger Matthew Guy’s stocks rose further when he got the backing of key Liberal MP Brad Battin. The former shadow minister’s support is considered crucial after he garnered nine votes when he challenged Michael O’Brien in March, with Guy’s supporters backing the incumbent O’Brien, who got 22 votes.

“I am supporting change,” Battin said on Monday. A magnanimous move given Guy and his supporters scuttled his leadership challenge and Battin’s voting bloc is in a position to return the favour.

You can also be sure that Guy and two of the Liberal’s chief attack dogs, James Newbury and Tim Smith, would not have resigned from the shadow ministry if they were not certain their man had the numbers. There is an additional salary of $16,000 for shadow ministers plus around $12,000 in expense allowance benefits.

If Matthew Guy is the man to lead the Liberal Party, he will face a gargantuan challenge a the next election. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Matray

Victoria’s Liberals, along with opposition parties in other states, have been hopelessly unsuccessful in making an impact during the pandemic even when those in power are making significant mistakes. And no government has made more consequential mistakes, more often, than the Andrews government.

Victorian Labor’s deplorable performance during the Covid-19 crisis has seen the state simultaneously record the most deaths – and by some margin – and the longest and most crippling restrictions.

Melbourne will soon earn the dubious honour of the most locked down city in the world.

But the Coalition cannot rely on Victoria’s pandemic response to win the election; it needs to be ready to fight on several fronts and give Victorians a real choice at the 2022 poll.

The electorate can suffer from the sort of collective amnesia that afflicted Premier Andrews, his ministers and bureaucracy at the Coate inquiry into hotel quarantine. By November 2022 even Victorians should be back to living normally, allowed to see their families, earn a living and send their kids to school. Heck, they may even allow us to go outside unmasked and observe sunsets without scoldy lectures from politicians.

By then Covid-19 may be a distant, albeit ugly, memory for Victorians, but we must never forget the needless suffering inflicted on so many due to the inept catastrophists in the Andrews government. The opposition leader must wake up every day and choose courage. There can be no playing it safe or there’ll be another landslide loss in Guy’s future.

There’s not much furniture left to save; the objective must be to be bold, principled and electable.

IN SHORT

Another renowned business bites the dust. The Melbourne Star Observation Wheel will close permanently thanks to the city’s crippling lockdowns. The wheel has been a part of the Melbourne skyline for more than 15 years.