Brad Battin urged to intervene ahead of Pesutto payday deadline to avoid costly by-election

Opposition Leader Brad Battin is facing increasing pressure to personally intervene in the $2.3m plight of former leader John Pesutto to fend off a potential costly Hawthorn by-election.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin is facing increasing pressure to intervene in the $2.3m plight of former leader John Pesutto to fend off a potential Hawthorn by-election.

A plan to force Victorian Liberal MPs to get behind the embattled former leader fizzled out just days out from his looming payday deadline.

A special party room meeting was called for 7.45am on Tuesday at the request of one of Mr Pesutto’s key backers inside shadow cabinet, Brad Rowswell.

Multiple party room sources told the Herald Sun Mr Rowswell requested the meeting after requesting to know what the party leadership was doing to prevent a potential by-election.

There is a view among an increasing number of MPs that Mr Battin should personally intervene to ensure the costly by-election is avoided.

Senior Liberals fear the seat would be unwinnable and could ignite wider support for independent teal candidates in neighbouring seats including Kew and Malvern.

Mr Pesutto has until Friday to pay $2.3m in legal costs incurred by colleague Moira Deeming in the pair’s longrunning defamation feud.

Mrs Deeming has said she will issue bankruptcy proceedings against Mr Pesutto on Friday unless the court imposed deadline is met.

Mr Pesutto would then have 21 days to honour the multimillion-dollar debt, enter into a payment arrangement or face bankruptcy and an abrupt end to his political career.

Moira Deeming. Picture: David Crosling

A by-election would be triggered if Mr Pesutto is ultimately unable to pay, is declared bankrupt, and becomes ineligible to sit in parliament.

At Tuesday’s meeting Mr Rowswell asked to defer the issue to a later meeting, with sources saying he wanted to avoid taking oxygen away from the Coalition’s stamp duty policy announcement.

However other sources said they believed the issue was deferred after a group of pro-Pesutto supporters failed to get the numbers to move a motion requiring party leadership to act.

Some described the move as a “de facto leadership ballot” amid growing internal concerns about the direction of the party under new leader Brad Battin.

However pro-Battin sources said his numbers had improved since December’s leadership spill by at least two, consolidating his grip on the leadership.

“He (Rowswell) looked foolish after calling the meeting then asking for the conversation to be deferred,” one source said.

Former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto. Picture: Ian Currie

Mr Pesutto held the once blue-ribbon seat between 2014 and 2018 but lost it to Labor’s John Kennedy before winning it back at the 2022 election.

But party powerbrokers fear a strong independent candidate could easily win the seat with strong preference flows from Labor and progressive minor parties.

Rob Baillieu, a current City of Boroondara councillor and the son of former premier Ted Baillieu, is favoured to run as an independent in the event of a by-election.

Few Liberals believe the party could hold onto the seat and fear a loss could fatally damage the party’s hopes ahead of next year’s state election.

It is understood sitting MPs were keen to bring the matter to a head at Tuesday’s meeting after enduring more than two years of political pain over the issue.

There are also fears a by-election loss could significantly impact Mr Battin’s leadership amid growing internal concerns about the party’s direction.

Internal disputes have broken out in recent weeks over his leadership, with at least one senior Liberal who backed him taking the role no longer supporting the new leadership.

A GoFundMe page set up in support of Mr Pesutto has so far raised $175,000 of a $3m target while the former leader has privately raised a significant amount of money.

The Liberal Party and investment arm the Cormack Foundation have been privately lobbied to help pay the remainder.