Victoria Nationals elect Peter Walsh new leader

THE Victorians Nationals have elected Peter Walsh as its new leader, while his deputy is a 28-year-old rookie MP.

New Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh.

THE Victorians Nationals have elected former water minister Peter Walsh as its new leader and a 28-year-old MP who has never been in parliament as his deputy.

Stephanie Ryan, the newly elected member for Euroa in central Victoria, and Mr Walsh were elected by the party room to lead the Nationals through the delicate rebuilding stage.

The party room did not vote on whether to remain in coalition with the Liberal Party, with Mr Walsh saying he would wait to see who is made Liberal leader.

The Liberal Party will vote today to determine who takes over from Denis Napthine, who quit as leader on Saturday night after accepting he could not win enough seats to govern.

The expectation has been that the Nationals would want to remain in coalition.

Mr Walsh said despite the Nationals losing the northern Victorian seat of Shepparton to an independent and almost losing the Latrobe Valley seat of Morwell to another independent, the seat by seat vote for the Nationals was relatively strong.

"Our vote was very similar to what it was in 2010,’’ he said.

Mr Walsh said that he would be seeking talks with the coalition partner.

``I want to have that discussion. The party wants to make sure we have a constructive but very vigorous discussion,’’ he said.

"I actually think that we delivered a lot for country Victoria as a government. I think we can all be very proud of what’s happened in individual communities in our particular electorates.’’

The decision to elevate Ms Ryan to the position was the biggest surprise as she is yet to enter the parliament.

Ms Ryan is a former adviser to Mr Walsh and former premier Ted Baillieu.

"Obviously I’ve been involved in policy and politics for quite some time. I have worked as a journalist in the community and I spent the last 10 months really, really getting to know the issues across the Euroa electorate,’’ she said.

The National Party is at risk of losing its party status after its state-wide primary vote fell to about 5.3 per cent, compared with 6.8 per cent in the previous election.