Jess Wilson proclaims ‘new generation’ with broader focus to lead Victorian Liberals

New Opposition Leader Jess Wilson vowed budget repair was her top priority as an unlikely alliance allowed her to topple Brad Battin for the party’s top job.

A first-term MP, Wilson, 35, positioned herself as having broader appeal than her predecessor by adding healthcare and home ownership to her policy priorities, along with Battin’s focus area of crime.

Jess Wilson was elected the Victorian Liberals’ new leader after the spill vote.Credit: Jason South

The member for Kew is the first woman to lead the Victorian Liberal Party, the third leader in 11 months and the seventh (eighth with Matthew Guy having served twice) since the Coalition last won a state election.

Her victory sets up a historic 2026 state election, in which a woman will win a Victorian election for the first time.

“I’m incredibly humbled,” Wilson said. “I’m incredibly proud to be standing here today. It’s a very humbling experience.

“My message to Victorians is that I’m in your corner. I want to back you in.”

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson (left) and Premier Jacinta Allan shake hands in parliament on Tuesday.Credit: Jason South

There are now four former opposition leaders in the parliamentary Liberals – Guy, Michael O’Brien, John Pesutto and Battin – all of whom also stepped up to the role promising to fix a seemingly broken party.

Wilson struggled to explain her justification for challenging for the leadership when she addressed the media later on Tuesday, but said MPs had phoned her encouraging her to stand.

She had new team members ready to bring into her office on Tuesday.

Battin ultimately did not run for the leadership, leaving Wilson to succeed unopposed after the spill motion – moved by Wilson supporter Brad Rowswell – got up 19-13 at the Liberal party room meeting at 8.30am on Tuesday.

Brad Battin has been ousted as leader of the Victorian Liberal party.Credit: Joel Carrett

Wilson thanked Battin and said he would play a key role in the team.

She said she would have conversations with colleagues over coming days to determine her shadow cabinet and that all opposition policies would be up for review.

Sam Groth narrowly held on as deputy by two votes after a challenge from former deputy David Southwick.

Conservative MP Bev McArthur usurped David Davis as leader of the upper house. Evan Mulholland will remain deputy upper house leader.

Upper house leader Bev McArthur, deputy upper house leader Evan Mulholland, and deputy Liberal leader Sam Groth watch on as Jess Wilson delivers her first press conference as opposition leader.Credit: Jason South

Wilson’s allies had been brokering a peace deal with McArthur to ensure stability.

In an acknowledgment of her influence over the conservative wing of the party, McArthur suggested she would secure unity in her new elevated role.

“That’s why I’m here,” McArthur told reporters. “In 12 months’ time, you’ll be interviewing the premier of Victoria, and it will be Jess Wilson.”

While the spill had broad cross-factional support, sources suggested the result was less emphatic than expected because some MPs in the moderate and middle groupings were sceptical of McArthur’s ascension. They argued Wilson already had majority support and there was no need to “trade in the farm” to McArthur, though several others viewed the result as a stabilising way forward.

Battin walked out of the party room shortly after 9am to concede defeat, calling on the Coalition to get on a winning path to ensure genuine change.

“We can’t just wait for it to happen,” he said.

“Politics isn’t about just being inside the parliament. It’s actually about the people – it’s about the people we’re supposed to be representing.”

Wilson named debt and the economy as her top priority, followed by crime, access to health, and home ownership.

“As someone who is a Millennial, who is 35 years old, I understand the pressures when it comes to trying to get your foot on the property ladder,” she said.

This could become a sore point internally. Some of Wilson’s MPs have rallied against the government’s high-density activity centres and exposed Liberals to Labor attacks of being “blockers”.

Wilson said her shadow cabinet would look at tax changes to boost housing.

Though polls have consistently put Allan in an election winning-position in November 2026, which would be Labor’s fourth consecutive victory, Labor sources have privately conceded Allan would be vulnerable to a robust opposition.

Wilson said: “Victorians have a clear choice – a choice of 16 years of Labor, or a choice of a new generation of a Liberal team, a team that will have a focus on the right priorities, on the priorities that Victorians talk to us about every single day.”

Victorian Labor has already launched attack advertisements against Wilson, accusing her of leading a party that would cut services if elected.

“I’m not going to be lectured by a treasurer or a premier about managing finances … who have seen debt soar to nearly $200 billion,” Wilson said.

Economist Saul Eastlake has argued that tax hikes, spending cuts or asset sales were inevitable for debt correction.

“I’m not taking sides in Victorian politics, but the Allan government has not been under any serious or sustained pressure for a long time, any more than Dan Andrews was,” he said.

“Part of the reason why Victoria is in the financial mess it’s in is because the opposition has failed to do its job of putting the government under pressure.”

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Sally Curtain backed Wilson’s new focus, warning that the pathway to budget repair could not be built on higher taxes because “business is not an ATM”.

Cath Evans, Victorian executive director of the Property Council of Australia, also welcomed Wilson’s emphasis on the economy and home ownership.

“As the most heavily taxed property sector in the country, we have long called for meaningful tax reform alongside a more efficient and predictable planning system,” Evans said.

Resolve Strategic pollster Jim Reed said that while Battin might have been too focused on crime at the expense of other issues, the party shouldn’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

Reed noted that while Resolve research showed crime was resonating with voters, the electorate also placed significant weight on the economy, budget repair and cost of living.

“You’ve got ingrained issues in crime that people are blaming the government for,” he said.

“But perhaps Brad’s downfall was that he was talking about one issue too much. You need a wider election pitch than just crime.”

Wilson is in her first term of parliament, having previously headed the Business Council of Australia’s energy and climate policy unit and worked for former treasurer Josh Frydenberg.

She is married with a young son. Her father, Ron Wilson, was also a state Liberal MP.

Frydenberg congratulated Wilson on her election, saying she has what it takes “to create a better future for all Victorians”.

Federal Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who is facing her own leadership difficulties, thanked Battin and congratulated Wilson.

“Jess represents a fresh, next-generation approach at a time when Victoria needs it most,” she said.

Wilson has been viewed as a standout performer since entering parliament, particularly on the childcare crisis and hitting the government on financial management.

She spoke to Battin after 8pm on Monday to confirm her intention to run for the leadership after months of encouragement, which escalated following a reshuffle that disenfranchised some of Battin’s former supporters last month.

The opposition has been headed for a fourth consecutive election loss on current polling, and Battin had faced disquiet about his narrow focus on crime and a series of unforced errors that put MPs offside.

A delegation of MPs – McArthur, Renee Heath, Nick McGowan and Rowswell – met Battin on Monday afternoon to inform him he had lost the support of the party room.

There was a broad view for about a month that Tuesday’s spill was inevitable.

“We know we’re going to do it,” one MP had said on the condition of anonymity. “If we have to do this, let’s deal with it now.”

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