‘Unforgivable’: Liberal fury at MP Zoe McKenzie’s snap with Labor’s Dunkley victor Jodie Belyea

Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie has been blasted for ‘naivety’ and ‘zero political judgement’ by her colleagues over an online tribute to victorious Dunkley candidate Jodie Belyea.

Liberal MP for Flinders, Zoe McKenzie, congratulates Labor’s Jodie Belyea for her win in the Dunkley by-election. Picture: Instagram

It’s the Instagram photo that has sent conservative forces within the federal Liberal Party into meltdown.

“An absolute act of naivety,” said one senior Liberal source.

Said another: “Unforgivable”.

At around 10.30pm on Saturday night, Liberal MP for Flinders Zoe McKenzie posted a selfie with the yet to be declared new Labor member for Dunkley Jodie Belyea.

In her post, Ms McKenzie congratulates the Labor candidate after the outcome of the result in the by-election was declared.

The post shows Ms McKenzie, who replaced former Coalition health minister Greg Hunt as the member for Flinders following his retirement before the 2022 election, with her arm around Ms Belyea.

Supporters of Ms McKenzie, however, say that she has always been a strong supporter of the late Dunkley MP Peta Murphy as a champion for women.

Point taken. The image posted by Ms McKenzie was presented as a show of solidarity among women representing the Mornington Peninsula of Melbourne.

“Congratulations Jodie Belyea,” Ms McKenzie says in the post. “You have been a good friend to women across the Mornington Peninsula, Look forward to working with you in looking after paradise.”

Flinders and Dunkley are adjoining electorates but are politically, poles apart.

The sentiment of unity, however, wasn’t shared by Ms McKenzie’s more hardened Liberal colleagues not only in Victoria but further afield.

“I was floored,” a senior Liberal source told The Australian.

“To say the anger among the ranks is palpable would be an understatement.”

The Instagram image has spread through national Liberal ranks like wildfire.

“We are at war with Labor. To think this new breed of Liberal thinks otherwise is infuriating.”

“We are going to run a campaign against Jodie Belyea at the next election, what do we do now?”

Ms McKenzie’s husband Rodrigo Pintos Lopez, recently resigned as chief of staff to Victorian Liberal Opposition leader John Pesutto.

Another senior Liberal source, less incensed by the image but concerned nevertheless, told The Australian that in the least it represented a naivety that needed to be addressed within the Victorian liberals.

“This shows zero political judgement,” they said.

“The most generous that you could say is that it is a naive act”.

Ms McKenzie declined to comment. But supporters of the member for Flinders said she had a long history of supporting better outcomes for women and a more collaborative and bipartisan approach should have not been a surprise to anyone.