Liberal Party hopefuls line up to replace fallen Matthew Guy

Four men are shaping up as contenders for the leadership of the Victorian Liberal Party following Matthew Guy’s resignation after he lost his second election to Daniel Andrews.

Brad Battin is a contender for the vacant Victorian Liberal Party leadership. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Four men are shaping up as contenders for the leadership of the Victorian Liberal Party following Matthew Guy’s resignation after he lost his second election to Daniel Andrews on Saturday.

Brad Battin, the Coalition’s police and emergency services spokesman, Ryan Smith, who holds the finance and planning portfolios, and Richard Riordan, who has housing and resources, have all publicly declared they will put themselves forward, alongside former shadow attorney-general John Pesutto, who is awaiting a close count in his inner Melbourne seat of Hawthorn.

With no counting on Monday in the seat Mr Pesutto lost to Labor in 2018, he remained 480 votes ahead of Teal independent Melissa Lowe, with 70.9 per cent counted.

As reported in Monday’s Australian, a fifth candidate has also emerged in upper house MP Matt Bach, but this would depend upon Matthew Guy leaving parliament and vacating his seat of Bulleen.

Counting is yet to be finalised in several lower house seats, with the Liberals still hopeful they could win Pakenham, where they trail Labor by just eight votes, and Bass, where they are 225 votes behind Labor, as well as Mornington, where Liberal Chris Crewther leads Teal independent Kate Lardner by 177 votes.

Richard Riordan. Picture: Yuri Kouzmin

John Pesutto. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Numbers in the upper house are also yet to become clear, with the Liberals likely to win at least 11 seats, but up to 13.

The wait for the count to be completed means the partyroom is unlikely to be able to meet and vote on a new leader until at least next week, with all contenders telling The Australian their calls to fellow Liberals have been more about letting them knowing they are running than canvassing support.

Mr Pesutto is being touted as a widely respected elder statesman who will have won back inner-city territory under threat from Labor and the Teal movement, while Mr Battin, a former policeman who holds the outer southeastern Melbourne seat of Berwick, is selling himself as a candidate who understands the outer suburbs, where the Liberals desperately need to win seats to form government.

Mr Smith, who holds the seat of Warrandyte in Melbourne’s northeast, said the party needed a leadership team that was as palatable outside the partyroom as inside.

“We need someone who can appeal to people right across the state,” he said.

Mr Smith also pledged to ensure every MP “is used and has a job” and to forge a closer relationship between the leader’s office and the party secretariat, with recent campaign blunders being blamed on a breakdown between Mr Guy’s office and the administrative wing of the party.

Ryan Smith. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Mr Riordan, who holds the Western District seat of Polwarth, south and west of Geelong, said he planned to bridge the divide between city and country.

“At the moment we don’t hold a single seat between where I live and Kew (in Melbourne’s east),” Mr Riordan said. “We’ve got a massive task to engage with three-quarters of Melbourne’s population and I’m interested in being part of the solution.”

The Australian has been told Jess Wilson, the former Business Council executive and Josh Frydenberg staffer who held Tim Smith’s former seat of Kew against Teal independent Sophie Torney, is viewed as a favourable candidate for deputy leader.

Roma Britnell, a former nurse and dairy farmer who has been ports, freight and consumer affairs spokeswoman has also been mentioned as a possible deputy, amid pressure to have a woman in the leadership team, particularly following the loss of Louise Staley.

Despite achieving a 0.5 per cent swing on Saturday Ms Staley is set to become a casualty of a redistribution that made her seat of Ripon a 2.7 per cent Labor seat.