Car crash Victorian MP Tim Smith must be saved, says Tony Abbott

Tony ­Abbott will urge Liberal preselectors to save the career of drink-drive MP Tim Smith.

Drink-drive MP Tim Smith. Picture: David Crosling

Tony ­Abbott will urge Liberal preselectors in drink-drive MP Tim Smith’s state seat of Kew not to allow a “spirit of petty censoriousness” to end the public life of one of the party’s “best Victorian talents”, as the 38-year-old considers defying his leader to recontest the next election.

Mr Smith is pulling out all stops to muster support from party elders and federal factional allies in a bid to save his career, despite Opposition Leader Matthew Guy publicly stating he does not want his close friend to contest the November 2022 election, ahead of nominations for preselection closing on November 12.

Liberal colleagues quipped that Mr Smith had been involved in “three car crashes”, after he gave a radio interview and held an hour-long press conference on Wednesday, during which he maintained he had only consumed “a few glasses of wine” on Saturday before getting into his Jaguar, clipping another ­vehicle, smashing into the side of a house and giving a blood-­alcohol reading of 0.131 per cent.

During the press conference, Mr Smith was asked more than 50 times whether he acknowledged that Mr Guy had told him he did not want him to contest the 2022 election. Each time, Mr Smith refused to answer, instead saying Mr Guy had asked him to “reflect on my position”. Mr Guy told a televised press conference on Tuesday: “I made it clear that I didn’t want (Mr Smith) to nominate at the next election, and that I didn’t believe he should nominate for the seat of Kew.”

Challenged over the discrepancy between his comments and his leader’s, Mr Smith eventually said “recollections may differ”.

Mr Smith vowed never to drink again, but said he would not be “playing the mental health card”. “I’m not unwell. I’m an idiot,” he said.

He said he was canvassing the views of Liberal branch members and was yet to decide whether he would seek preselection.

Mr Abbott said he hoped Mr Smith would run, and he would “certainly” provide him with a reference to circulate to Kew’s 300 branch members.

“Our party needs more fighting spirit, especially in Victoria, and Tim is the one state Liberal MP who has most consistently and effectively attacked the ­Andrews government,” Mr ­Abbott told The Australian.

“It would be to the discredit of our great party were a spirit of petty censoriousness to end the public life of one of our best Victorian talents.

“Should this one lapse disqualify him from sitting in our parliament, our public life would be even more impoverished.”

While some federal Liberals are still privately supporting Mr Smith, he is understood to have lost the support of the majority of the state partyroom.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg refused to say whether he believed Mr Smith should quit.

“I’ve made it very clear to Tim Smith that he should carefully consider the words of his state leader in Matthew Guy,” said Mr Frydenberg, whose seat of Kooyong overlaps with Kew.

Should Kew branch members preselect Mr Smith, the Liberal Party’s administrative committee could overturn the nomination.

One Smith supporter on Wednesday indicated this could spark a challenge of the administrative committee’s legitimacy, describing it as being “in the third year of a one-year term”, in reference to internal party elections being postponed due to Covid-19.

Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine forensic physician Sanjeev Gaya said blood-alcohol concentrations depended on age, weight and height.

While Mr Smith’s exact height and weight are not known, Mr Gaya said a 38-year-old man who weighed 95kg and was 180cm tall would need to drink “8.2 standard drinks or 82g of alcohol” to achieve a blood alcohol concentration of 0.131.

Forensic toxicologist Michael Robertson estimated Mr Smith would have needed to consume “at least” eight standard drinks.