David Davis confirms nomination to replace Tim Smith in Kew

A gender debate has broken out among the Victorian Liberal Party, with multiple sitting MPs challenged for party preselection.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy with Shadow Treasurer David Davis. Picture: Sarah Matray

The Victorian Liberal Party is at war with at least five sitting MPs forced to fight for survival after being challenged for party preselection.

It comes as Leader of the Opposition in the upper house David Davis launched a controversial bid to move to the lower house to replace Kew MP Tim Smith.

The move has been slammed by some within the party who said it risked thwarting a boost to the number of female Liberal MPs.

Jess Wilson, a Business Council of Australia adviser and former political staffer in Josh Frydenberg’s office, had been considered a front runner for the blue-riband seat.

Ms Wilson is being backed by senior Liberals including the federal Treasurer and has been described as “the future of the party”.

Recent polling in the seat of Kew also found one third of voters would be more likely to vote for the party if there were more women among its ranks.

Jess Wilson has been described as “the future of the party”.

David Davis’ nomination for the seat of Kew was confirmed on Friday.

Some Liberals have also accused Mr Davis of showing no confidence in opposition leader Matthew Guy.

“He has a seat already. Why else would he want a lower house seat other than to contest the Liberal leadership on the presumption that we lose the next election,” one senior Liberal said.

“Isn’t it time that parliamentary members started focusing on helping Victorians and providing an alternative to Labor rather than being driven by personal ambition and internal politicking?

“I would have thought that the party would want to use this as an opportunity to renew its team and not simply replace a young and privileged man with an older privileged man who was first elected 25 years ago.”

Liberal sources said it was hard to see anyone beating Ms Wilson, the daughter of former state Liberal MP Ron Wilson, for preselection.

“I’m not sure the branch members are going to take a punt on a plucky 59-year-old who already has an upper house seat,” one said.

Another described Mr Ms Wilson as “the future of the party”.

Shadow Attorney-General Matt Bach had also considered nominating for the seat, but didn’t want to try his luck against Mr Davis.

Mr Smith made the decision to quit politics at the 2022 election in the fallout of his October 30 drink-drive crash in which he smashed his Jaguar into a Hawthorn home and recorded a blood­alcohol reading of 0.131.

Challenges have also been launched against former leader Michael O’Brien in his seat of Malvern and James Newbury in Brighton.

Stonnington Councillor Alexander Lew and Malbern lawyer Virginia Wallace will challenge Mr O’Brien for his seat.

The move has been dubbed as a “slap in the face” to the former state treasurer and well respected MP.

“These people have a death wish. If they think it is what they need, that’s what they’ll get,” one MP said.

Brad Battin, David Morris, and Neil Angus — who is currently banned from parliament because of his anti-vax stance — will also face challenges for preselection.