Leaked email: how Victorian Liberals marched off cliff

Liberal federal vice-president Karina Okotel has dismantled the Victorian branch over its election campaign in a withering email.

Liberal federal vice president Karina Okotel and Liberal Party Victorian president Michael Kroger in Canberra. Picture: Sean Davey

A senior federal Liberal has ­excoriated the party’s Victorian branch over its election campaign, accusing the leadership team of having “marched us all off a cliff’’ and of lashing out at critics who tried to prevent the rout.

Liberal federal vice-president Karina Okotel dismantled the campaign in a withering email that accused state director Nick Demiris and party president ­Michael Kroger of ignoring warnings about looming defeat.

Ms Okotel, a Liberal conser­vative, said basic errors such as sending postal votes to dead ­people, failing to provide campaign posters and allegedly botching advertising during the campaign contributed to Labor’s thumping of the Coalition last ­Saturday.

Her email will be seen as a warning to federal colleagues about the potential for a repeat of the campaign when Scott Morrison goes to the polls next year.

It could also open up a damaging split among Victorian Liberal conservatives, with Ms Okotel previously seen as a factional ally of Mr Kroger.

Ms Okotel said she was ­“absolutely howled down’’ and “mocked’’ when concerns were raised about how the campaign was being run. She also said the so-called Lobstergate affair had dimin­ished former leader Matthew Guy’s authority in the party.

Ms Okotel highlighted Mr Guy, Mr Kroger, frontbencher Ryan Smith, Mr Demiris and Mr Guy’s chief of staff Scott Pearce for what she said was a failed campaign in which there was little or no consultation.

“This has got to have been the worst campaign ever, and all along they were doing internal polling,’’ she wrote. “They were the campaign team and they all knew how bad it was. And yet they marched us all off a cliff.’’

Describing the party as “complete and utter fools’’, Ms Okotel said the campaign had been run on a single-issue platform: crime.

“I feel sick to my stomach every time I think about it and I feel angry and despondent at the same time,’’ she said.

“What happened with the postal votes? Why were they sent out so late and to dead people?

“For some reason, they chucked out all of our knowledge about campaigning. The ad campaign was hopeless.

“We’d spent all this time preparing some really great policies but never told anyone about them. We ran such a divisive campaign. No migrant of colour could vote for us. Why were we only talking about African gangs?’’

The Australian approached Ms Okotel about the email but she declined to comment.

The email is believed to have originally been sent to a small number of recipients. It comes as the Liberal Party faces months of turbulence after the weekend rout.

There are bitter recriminations after the federal member for Chisholm, Julia Banks, quit the party to turn independent. The Victorian Liberals suffered one of their most humiliating defeats at the weekend, with huge anti-Coalition swings in once heartland seats that have allowed Labor to increase its majority by up to nine seats.

Ms Okotel also sits on the party’s Victorian administrative committee. Mr Guy told the committee on Wednesday that it should support Mr Demiris and Mr Kroger in the wake of the campaign; the reasons for the defeat were complex, it was told.

The party’s administrative leadership declined to comment on the contents of the email.

It is increasingly likely that Mr Kroger will remain president until next March or until he decides to step down but his enemies, including former premier Jeff Kennett, have been lining up to attack him.

Josh Frydenberg also has told party members that there should not be more bloodletting while the federal Coalition prepares to fight its own election, probably in May.

Ms Okotel accused Mr Guy of being a “puppet’’ of some of the party’s conservative forces in the wake of the Lobstergate affair, sparked by the Liberal leader’s dinner with Tony Madafferi, a controversial businessman who denies he has any links with the mafia.

“It was as if Guy now was a complete puppet, and this showed in his confidence,’’ she wrote.

“All this was against a backdrop of total division in the party.’’

The leaked email emerged as Mr Kroger had a win yesterday with the $37 million sale of the party’s headquarters at 104 Exhibition Street.

The party will buy a smaller building on the edge of the city and use the spare cash to create a fund to supplement income from the $70m Cormack Foundation and private donors.

Liberal Party elder Tony Nutt will conduct a review of the campaign result.

Andrew Bond, the failed Liberal candidate for the inner-city seat of Albert Park, yesterday attacked the campaign. He attacked Mr Guy and accused the party of not knowing how to properly use its new computer system and of making fundamental errors of judgment. He also said the party had sent letters to dead people.

“It goes without saying that the campaign from CHQ (campaign headquarters) was a disaster,’’ Mr Bond said. “Whilst candidates were continually told CHQ had never been better resourced, the outcomes and responses (or lack of) from CHQ indicate nothing was further from the truth.’’

On the Liberal polling, he said: “Clearly the polling was flawed and inadequate. On Friday the 16th of November, I was contacted by the state director and told I was the most marginal seat in the state. A week later the election revealed a 10 per cent plus swing against me in Albert Park. Was our polling so wrong, or was I as the candidate being fed false information?’’

Mr Kroger, in an email to party members yesterday, said the odds were stacked against Mr Guy’s team.

“We know that no first-term majority state government has lost office in Victoria for more than 100 years and so the challenge was always going to be great but nevertheless Matthew brought great passion and skills to the office of leader and we thank him for his ­exceptional service to the party in particular and to all Victorians in general,’’ he said.