Backroom Baz: Jeff Kennett tells Liberal Tim Smith to shape up after TV appearance

Advice dished out by former premier Jeff Kennett is keenly followed by most Victorian Liberals, so when he told Tim Smith to shape up after a TV interview, Smith booked himself into what his frenemies have labelled “a fat camp”.

Jeff Kennett told Liberal MP Tim Smith he needed to shape up after watching him in a TV interview. Picture: The Australian

Advice dished out by former premier Jeff Kennett is keenly followed by most Victorian Liberals.

So when the party elder suggested whippersnapper Tim Smith consider his appearance on TV it provided plenty of food for thought.

Kennett didn’t get through to Smith directly, but left a voicemail gently chiding him for filling too much of the screen.

“You look like a frog,” Kennett said.

Nothing wrong with a few extra chins in Baz’s opinion!

Jeff Kennett allegedly told Tim Smith he looked “like a frog” after a TV interview. Picture: Fiona Maurer

Then-opposition leader Matthew Guy told Smith not to take it to heart, showing it wasn’t a big deal by telling pretty much everyone in the party room.

Perhaps it was Kennett’s advice, or the Liberals’ November election croak, but something has certainly spurred Smith into action.

So much so that he rang in the New Year at a New Zealand health retreat — or what his friends and frenemies have dubbed “fat camp”.

The Aro Ha retreat bills itself as a “next-level wellness experience, offering life shifting, body morphing (and) spirit lifting retreats”.

Smith has told friends he has since shed 6kg, and there’s more to come.

Kermit — ahem, sorry, we mean Kennett — would be proud.

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