Outgoing Hawthorn MP John Pesutto says Liberal Party has lost touch with base

Vanquished Victorian MP John Pesutto says his daughter’s call to attend last week’s climate change rally highlights the party’s woes.

Victorian frontbencher John Pesutto says only a miracle will prevent him losing his seat. Picture: AAP

Vanquished senior Victorian Liberal John Pesutto has used his 17-year-old daughter’s decision to attend last week’s climate change rally to illustrate the challenge the Liberal Party faces in ensuring it can continue to appeal to a wide range of voters.

The Liberal Party’s legal affairs spokesman conceded that “short of some miracle” he had lost his once safe seat of Hawthorn, congratulating Labor’s John Kennedy on his win.

Mr Pesutto said traditional Liberal voters who deserted the party at the state poll 11 days ago had been left feeling they could not support a party which had ignored or opposed issues they care about.

“(My daughter) doesn’t particularly support the Greens, doesn’t believe they have the solutions, even at the age of 17, doesn’t support the Labor Party, and surprise, surprise, she supports the party her dad is a member of,” Mr Pesutto said.

“But here’s the challenge: we have people who support us and want to support us, but they might have different views on things, and we have to be open enough to avoid putting restrictions on when and how people can support the party’s cause.”

With the Liberal Party set to have as many men called David as women in the Victoria lower house, Mr Pesutto said the party needed foster a culture of inclusiveness to attract more women, people from migrant backgrounds and younger voters.

He said he would not rule out introducing quotas for women, but was not yet convinced they were the best way of addressing the problem.

“My problem with jumping to that straight away is quotas are going to be difficult to produce the result we all want if the culture is not right,” he said.

Had he held his seat, Mr Pesutto would have put his name forward for the opposition leader’s job alongside treasury spokesman Michael O’Brien.

Mr O’Brien is widely expected to be elected leader when the partyroom meets tomorrow, with likely rival Brad Battin set to gain a handful of votes.

Mr Pesutto did not rule out running for Hawthorn again in the future or switching to the upper house, and said he would remain strongly supportive of the Liberal Party and help it rebuild in whatever way he could.