Rita Panahi: Weak, rudderless Liberal Party giving Daniel Andrews a free run
Victoria’s Liberal Party is so inept, it can’t even manage its own internal political machinations, let alone put up a fight against Labor.
Rita Panahi
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The phrase “couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery” comes to mind when one thinks of the current Victorian Liberal Party.
Weak, rudderless and lacking the ideological conviction to fight on matters of principle, the party has repeatedly vacated the field, giving the Dan Andrews government a free run on a range of issues from radical trans agenda policies to enshrining anti-fracking provisions in the Victorian constitution.
But this lot aren’t just failing to put up a fight against Labor, they are so hopelessly inept they can’t manage their own internal political machinations. Can anybody blame Peta Credlin for baulking at calls to save this rabble from itself?
Right now we have the astonishing situation where the leader, Michael O’Brien, has only minority support, with around a third of the party room standing behind him.
However, those opposed to O’Brien are split into two camps; there are the nine who voted for Brad Battin in this week’s leadership spill, plus a couple of others who pledged support but didn’t ultimately vote for him, and a similar number of MPs are waiting for former leader Matthew Guy to challenge.
The three-way standoff is another failure in judgment and execution and not just by the Battin camp.
Surely the Guy camp would’ve been better served to put aside their egos and outrage at being blindsided to show some measure of support for the challenge. The smarter strategy would’ve been for the Guy forces to split their vote and give Battin enough to just fall short; thereby not only fatally wounding O’Brien’s leadership but making it more likely that Battin’s backers would vote for Guy when he does eventually challenge.
As it stands the party is locked in a three-way impasse with no winner other than Victorian Labor. But the Liberal Party’s issues run deeper than its leadership.
The fundamental question is what do they stand for? Are they just an economically responsible version of Labor, or are they capable of prosecuting policy positions and selling their message to the Victorian public?
It’s easy to brief the media about how “toxic” and “unsophisticated” the challenge was but it’s much harder to lay a glove on the Andrews government, even as it botched the state’s COVID-19 response, making Victoria the national laughing stock for most of 2020.
Time and time again, the state coalition has failed to fight on critical cultural, legal and environmental issues. They have failed to hold the government accountable even during a devastating 112-day lockdown.
Of course it’s never an easy task for Liberals in Victoria with the bulk of the media giving Labor a dream run. But thus far, the Liberals have failed to articulate who they are, what they stand for, and why they deserve to be elected.
Not being Dan Andrews is not a policy platform.
IN SHORT
State Veterans Affairs Minister Shaun Leane’s bizarre comments about Anzac Day commemorations including getting a “selfie looking all sad” were at best disrespectful and at worst showing a disturbing level of disdain for those who participate in the day.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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