Tim Smith: Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy mulls drink-driving MP’s future

Matthew Guy has given himself another 24 hours to meet with Tim Smith and discuss whether or not he has a future in state parliament.

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Geraghty

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy has given himself another 24 hours to meet with Tim Smith and discuss whether or not he has a future in state parliament, after he was forced to resign from shadow cabinet on Sunday.

Mr Smith recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.131 per cent after colliding with another car and ramming into the side of a house in Hawthorn, in Melbourne’s east, shortly before 9pm on Saturday.

Mr Guy called a press conference on Monday morning to discuss the issue, saying he remained “extremely angry and disappointed” at his close factional ally and friend‘s conduct.

“I am bitterly disappointed that any member of parliament, let alone one of my colleagues, would get behind the wheel after drinking, let alone recording the blood alcohol content that he did,” the Liberal leader said.

“I will, as I have in other circumstances of members of parliament, people in my team, where there are issues like this to discuss, I will speak to him face-to-face within the next 24 hours or so, to discuss his future with him and what comes from here.

Victorian MP Tim Smith. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Crosling

“Until then, I‘m not going to speculate via the media on his future. I will talk to him face-to-face, as you would expect me or any other boss to do. That is the appropriate way I will seek to deal with it, and I will deal with it within the next 24 hours.”

Mr Guy denied he was being too slow to show leadership in asking Mr Smith to resign.

“I don’t buy that for one moment. I’m going to see someone face-to-face and have a conversation with them about their future.”

“It’s 48 hours after something’s occurred. I will do that. I’ve said I’ll do that. That’s the right thing to do.”

Asked whether he could afford for the controversy surrounding Mr Smith to drag on, ahead of an election in just over 12 months, Mr Guy said: “I will to manage it, as I’ve said, in the next 24 or so hours, and I’ll have those conversations. No, obviously, we don’t want it to drag on. No one wants it to drag on.”

“I’ve had plenty of meaningful conversations over the last 24 hours or so, plenty of them, but I would rather deal with it face-to-face, and I think that’s the right thing to do.

“I think any Victorian would be afforded that kind of behaviour from their boss, and that’s what I will do, as I’ve done.”

Asked to describe Mr Smith’s emotional state, Mr Guy said: “I think he‘s very upset and disappointed in himself, and so he should be.”

Mr Guy acknowledged Mr Smith was one of his closest allies.

“Yes. Of course I do. He’s a friend. Of course I do. For me personally, it’s obviously a big deal. He’s a friend of mine. I don’t deny that. Why would I? I don’t deny my own friends. But he’s committed, he’s done something which is inexcusable. It’s inexcusable, and it will impact on him. We all know that, and it will.”

Asked whether he would have been made leader without Mr Smith, who moved September’s motion for a leadership spill, Mr Guy said: “You can make that observation.”

Asked whether he was worried about Mr Smith’s wellbeing, Mr Guy said: “It’s one of the reasons I’d like to see someone face-to-face, and I think that’s why it’s important to see someone face-to-face, rather than run off to a news conference and speculate.”

Mr Guy said he did not believe Australians had any more of a cultural problem with alcohol than people in other parts of the world, “particularly Europe”.

“Let me say this, I think I think, particularly during lockdowns, this has become an increasing problem in our country and in our state, but that is in no way an excuse for what has occurred, and don’t link me using one as an excuse for the other, because there is none.

“But I do think that’s obviously been an issue for people reacting, particularly single people, living by themselves, and their own mental health. But none of that is an excuse for what’s occurred.”

Mr Guy said he had “no reason to believe” Mr Smith was suffering from mental ill health prior to Saturday.

Smith’s conversation with Guy 

Mr Guy said Mr Smith had rung him on Sunday morning, following the crash on Saturday night.

“He rang me and told me what had occurred and immediately offered his resignation (from shadow cabinet), which was taken,” he said.

“I asked him what the circumstances were: firstly, was anyone hurt … let alone himself, because someone could have been, and as you can imagine, that was my first priority and my first concern, and then the circumstances that would have occurred and the situation beyond that.”

Mr Guy said Mr Smith had told him about the details of the crash, which involved clipping another vehicle when it braked in front of him, before swerving into the kerb, where his Jaguar collected a stop sign before crashing into the fence and coming to rest against the side of the house on the corner of Power and Denham streets in Hawthorn.

He had been returning home from an early dinner with friends in the nearby suburb of Kooyong.

Mr Smith’s written statement to the media on Sunday omitted details of the crash, but stated that he had made a “serious error of judgment” by drink driving, had been fined under the Road Safety Act, and had received a 12 month licence suspension.

Mr Guy said questions over the content of Mr Smith’s statement and his movements on Saturday night were matters for him.

Asked whether Mr Smith had ever driven drunk on any other occasion, Mr Guy said: “I would assume no. He’s never been charged with any instance like this before, and I would take the answer to that as no. You can ask him that. I wouldn’t have the faintest idea.”

Mr Guy said Mr Smith had apologised to the owners of the property he crashed into, and offered to pay for the damage.

Mr Smith had opted not to sacrifice some of his salary for a government car, and instead had a novated lease on the vehicle.

Parallels with Simon Ramsay

Mr Guy also faced questions about parallels between Mr Smith’s case and that of factional foe Simon Ramsay, who resigned in 2018 following his arrest for drink driving.

At the time, Mr Guy urged Mr Ramsay to “consider his future in parliament”.

Mr Ramsay had blown 0.191 per cent, and been caught by police driving on the wrong side of the road.

While he had not crashed his car or caused damage to property, Mr Ramsay’s level of intoxication resulted in him being charged with the criminal offence of high range drink driving, and required to appear in court, whereas Mr Smith has been fined for mid range drink driving, and will not be required to front court unless police charge him with careless driving.

Asked why he was not publicly calling for Mr Smith to resign from parliament, Mr Guy said: “Why are (Smith and Ramsay) different? They’re not. I’ll conduct it in the same way as I conducted it with Simon Ramsay.”

“I had a meeting with (Mr Ramsay) when parliament was sitting, and I met him face-to-face and I’ll do the same in this instance. Parliament’s not sitting, so I’ll wait until we can meet,” Mr Guy said.

Asked why he had not already spoken with Mr Smith face-to-face, he said: “He’s not in Melbourne.”

It is understood Mr Smith has travelled to his family’s property on the Mornington Peninsula.

“I think Tim needs a few days to recollect himself, after which I will have a conversation with him, which I’ve outlined,” Mr Guy said.

Asked whether Mr Smith would front the media to explain his actions, Mr Guy said: “In time, yes he will.”

Asked whether that was likely to happen on Tuesday or Wednesday, Mr Guy said he would expect it “sooner rather than later”.

Parallels with Will Fowles

When Labor backbencher and fellow graduate of Melbourne’s prestigious Scotch College Will Fowles bashed a Canberra hotel door down in a drug-fuelled rampage in 2019, Mr Smith called for his resignation from parliament.

Mr Smith reiterated those calls months later, when Fowles returned from a leave of absence, during which he had sought treatment for mental ill health and substance abuse issues.

Asked whether Mr Smith should follow the same standards he had set for others, Mr Guy said: “That’s not a question for me. That’s a question for him. I didn’t make those comments about Will Fowles.”

Matt Bach’s ascension

Mr Guy on Sunday appointed his shadow cabinet secretary and spokesman on early childhood, child protection, youth justice and higher education, Matt Bach, to replace Mr Smith as shadow attorney-general.

Asked why he had appointed a replacement, but not promoted anyone new to cabinet, Mr Guy said he was ensuring his shadow cabinet contained the same numbers and Daniel Andrews’ cabinet, following the resignation last month of Luke Donnellan amid branch-stacking allegations made at IBAC.

Like Mr Smith, Dr Bach, a former teacher and deputy principal, does not have a law degree.

“He has a doctorate and he’s written a number of papers serious papers around criminology, and if you have a look at some of the papers around criminology that he’s written, issues around criminology and the causes of criminal behaviour, I think you‘ll find he’s a hell of a lot more qualified to do that position than just about any other person,” Mr Guy said of Dr Bach.

Asked why Dr Bach had not been his first preference for shadow attorney-general when he appointed Mr Smith six weeks ago, Mr Guy said: “Ah well, you know, that’s a question for the time, isn’t it, but at this point in time, he is the most qualified.”

Smith ‘very good at what he did’

Mr Guy said he had appointed Mr Smith because he’s “very good at what he did”, praising him for his prosecution of the case against the Andrews government’s controversial pandemic legislation in parliament last week.

“He’s very good at what he does. And you saw that from last week in terms of the management of the pandemic bill,” Mr Guy said.

“He’s very good at that portfolio, and this is an unfortunate and quite a disastrous moment for him that his career has gone the way that it has with this incident, and obviously I’m pretty angry about it.”

Asked whether he had seen Mr Smith as a future Premier, Mr Guy said: “Tim could have been party leader, yes.”

Asked whether the events of the previous 36 hours had ruled out the possibility of Mr Smith ever being party leader, Mr Guy said: “Well, it would certainly it very difficult. That’s for sure.”

More partyroom problems

Mr Guy is battling partyroom problems on a second front, after backbencher Bernie Finn deleted a social media post which likened Daniel Andrews to Adolf Hitler.

“I’m going to deal with this matter today, and then deal with Bernie. As you can appreciate, it gives me a lot to do in the next 24 hours,” Mr Guy said.

Asked how frustrating it was to be dealing with so many instances of colleague misbehaviour, Mr Guy said: “I think you can probably see from the look on my face how frustrating it is.”