The Victorian Liberal Party ticks off $37.1 million sale of 104 Exhibition St headquarters
The Victorian Liberals are set to have a $37 million payday after selling their city headquarters days after a landslide state election.
Victoria State Election
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THE Victorian Liberals are set for a $37.1 million payday after securing a buyer for their Melbourne headquarters in the wake of Saturday’s state election drubbing.
The sale of 104 Exhibition St — home to the Liberal Party since the mid-1970s — was approved at an administrative committee meeting last night.
It comes as former federal director Tony Nutt is expected to lead a review into Saturday’s disastrous election loss.
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The political future of Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto teeters on a knife-edge as he trails Labor in the once blue-riband seat of Hawthorn.
Concern among senior Liberal figures has also spread to other electorates, including Gembrook where frontbencher Brad Battin’s lead is shrinking.
The Victorian Electoral Commission will continue counting today.
The blame game over the election landslide started soon after results began flowing in on Saturday night, with some fingering the leadership chaos in Canberra for the heavy loss.
Others blamed internal infighting and an “amateurish” campaign that failed to cut through with voters.
Tony Nutt expected to lead the inquiry into the Liberals disasterous Victorian election result. @theheraldsun
— rob harris (@rharris334) November 28, 2018
It is expected Mr Nutt — who quit as Ted Baillieu’s chief of staff after secret tapes were aired into Victoria’s police command crisis — will lead a review into the disastrous election campaign.
He resigned as Liberal national director last year, after leading the 2016 federal election campaign, when the Coalition lost 14 seats.
The sale of 104 Exhibition St has been on the agenda for a number of years but was considered more heavily as the party fought its largest donor, the Cormack Foundation, in court.
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The proposed sale also caused division among party members, and became a key issue in the battle for the party’s state presidency earlier this year.
One Liberal source told the Herald Sun in June that it was akin to “selling the silverware”.
State president Michael Kroger, who has faced calls to resign following Saturday’s election loss, championed the sale.
It is not yet clear who has bought the building.
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