Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy silent on support for Kroger

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy has failed to publicly back party president Michael Kroger.

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy in Carnegie, Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty.

Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy has failed to publicly back his party president as forces opposed to Michael Kroger embark on an open campaign to depose him.

While key federal ministers have backed Mr Kroger, Mr Guy yesterday would not be drawn on whether he supported his president amid efforts to install Howard-era minister Peter Reith.

The Australian understands that Mr Reith spent the weekend phoning a list of prominent Victorian Liberals to canvas their support and that it is now “highly likely’’ he will contest the position.

The emerging civil war in the Victorian party has embarrassed Mr Guy at a time the Andrews Labor government has been shaken by a series of unpopular decisions and an expenses scandal.

Mr Guy yesterday declined to throw his support behind Mr Kroger, saying that nominations had not yet closed. “I will deal with it when nominations close. I don’t think Victorians are really interested in internal Liberal Party matters,” Mr Guy said.

When asked why he was not willing to publicly back Mr Kroger, Mr Guy said he would not be “verballed”. He would not comment on whether Mr Reith would be a good president.

“I don’t want to be verballed on this, I’m not interested in engaging on issues on the front page of some newspapers about internal Liberal Party matters. I will comment on that when I have to comment on that. Now is not the time,” he said.

His refusal to comment came as federal ministers, including Josh Frydenberg and Greg Hunt, urging the membership to stick with Mr Kroger.

However, other federal ministers — Kelly O’Dwyer, Mitch Fifield and Scott Ryan — yesterday refused to say they would back Mr Kroger. Each is known to be hostile to the Liberal president.

Mr Kroger’s supporters are promoting his incumbency presidency on the basis of his discovery of a $1.5 million fraud committed by former state director Damien Mantach, the party’s relatively strong performance at the last federal election and claims that Mr Reith is a “kamikaze’’, undermining Mr Guy and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The Reith camp is exploiting unhappiness in some parts of the Liberal Party about the rise of conservative number-cruncher Marcus Bastiaan. This issue seems to be the lightning rod for discontent with Mr Kroger, who his critics claim has not done enough to mitigate Mr Bastiaan’s influence.

The Reith camp believes there is such ill feeling towards Mr Kroger that it will be hard for him to remain as president.

It is shaping as the most intense battle for the Victorian presidency in decades and that will be weighing heavily on Mr Guy’s mind.

While he is close to key members of the anti-Kroger camp, Mr Guy has had a solid relationship with Mr Kroger.