John Pesutto might have gone close to sending himself broke but he’s still got Moira Deeming breathing down his neck.
Talk about strategic thinking.
The Victorian Liberal Party leader has been severely diminished by the Federal Court ruling and will need a Beaconsfield gold miner’s resilience to survive the claustrophobic pressure he will face.
Despite all the political and personal pain caused by the defamation action, he has still allowed Deeming to continue to hunt him down.
After being whacked 5-0 in court, Pesutto then backed himself into another corner on Deeming, making clear he did not want her back in the party room.
The effect of this is to dare the rump of Deeming backers in the party-room to call for her to be re-admitted in what could be a distressing result for Pesutto.
There are an estimated six to eight hard core MPs in the Deeming camp but they need only five votes to embarrass Pesutto by calling for a party room vote for her return.
Will it happen?
Maybe, maybe not. The point is that Pesutto had the option to welcome his adversary back, bury the painful past and he chose to ignore it. Again.
As much as anything, the past two years have laid bare Pesutto’s personality characteristics and they are not always helpful in his political career.
He is a stubborn bloke who is not for turning and, it seems, he has a rock hard edge when it comes to people he doesn’t like.
Also, quite the ability to spin, ahem, crap.
Asked if he were thinking about appealing the judgment, Pesutto replied: “I’m not even turning my mind to that.’’
Really? He’s just come close to losing his house and he doesn’t want to think about saving it?
The first few minutes of his press conference were about telling the state about how bad the state’s future is.
(Never mind he’d just been smashed in the Federal Court.)
Victoria, he said, had the worst roads, worst schools, worst child protection framework, highest taxes, worst unemployment.
“We need better leadership in Victoria,’’ he said.
How’s the chutzpah, just hours after the worst court case of his life, sending him north of $1 million in the red, maybe even $2m?
A straight sets loss of this magnitude is a terrific repudiation of his political and legal judgment.
He is both a lawyer and a politician and he has failed on both fronts.
The financial headline figure of $300,000 is bad but once costs are considered the result could, indeed, be financially crippling.
But the debate also threatens to bleed into 2025 for Peter Dutton, who would love to pick up seats in the socialist republic of Victoria.
If Dutton does, it will be on the back of a suspect Labor brand in Victoria as well as the cost of living crisis.
More wrangling in the Victorian Liberal Party won’t help Dutton’s cause.
Pesutto appears so full of self belief that the Canberra cause is of very little interest.
His best hope being he can get through to next February, when the first party-room meeting is scheduled, assuming he isn’t ambushed any earlier.
By that time, if he remains strong in the polls, he will have survived.
So much of the way Pesutto is behaving looks like Labor’s Dan Andrews.
Got a problem. No worries. Power on.
The difference is, Andrews never would have punted Deeming the way Pesutto did.
Andrews would have got her, but served cold.
No surrender: rivals must blast Pesutto out
Even John Pesutto’s Liberal supporters have told the leader his days are over, but he’s is not expected to surrender on Friday.
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