When historians reflect on what went so badly wrong in Victoria in the early part of this century, they will rightly treat the chief architect of the catastrophe, Daniel Andrews, harshly.
But there’s another group of people who should not escape blame for their role in this post-2014 tragedy; Victorian Liberal MPs.
Democracies function at their strongest when the government of the day is held to account by a purposeful, united and robust opposition.
What has happened in Victoria over most of the past decade has been the exact opposite of this.
Instead of holding Andrews and Labor to account and checking the excesses that have left Victoria a financial basket case, Victorian Liberal MPs thought it was a good idea to spend their time fighting each other.
As they embarked on factional civil war and bitter personal feuds, they lurched from laziness to incompetence and in doing so allowed Andrews to crash the state unchallenged.
As an institution, the Victorian Liberal Party should be condemned for this epic failure.
And the events of the past two days demonstrate they have not learned their lessons as John Pesutto made a terrible situation in the wake of his Deeming defo defeat so much worse.
Even Pesutto’s supporters were saying at the weekend that it’s over and he should stand down with dignity and be part of an orderly transition to a new leadership team.
So what does Pesutto do?
In the greatest tradition of the Victorian Libs, he ignored the reality bubbling around him and launched what can be described only as a desperate Hail Mary bid to save his leadership.
By ordering another special partyroom meeting – set for 10am, January 15 – to vote on Moira Deeming’s return to the partyroom, Pesutto hopes to restore his leadership.
Pesutto understands the level of unhappiness among his colleagues, but spent the weekend reminding people that under his leadership the Liberals have seen poll numbers overtake Labor.
And he truly believes that he has earned the chance to contest the February by-elections in Prahran and Werribee.
Pesutto’s strategy ignores this reality – the only reason he that wasn’t rolled on Friday after half the partyroom had defied him to vote for Deeming’s return was a lack of consensus on who should replace him.
Pesutto has spent the past few days talking up his determination to “fight for all Victorians”, but if he was really putting the state ahead of his personal interests, then he would have resigned at the weekend and allowed the party to quickly, and decisively, elect a new leader.
Victoria needs a strong opposition to hold a decade-old Labor government to account and present as a credible alternative at the next state election in November 2026.
It’s time Pesutto must accept that he can no long deliver this.
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