Shannon Deery: It’s time John Pesutto, Liberals put their egos aside and unite for Victoria

Has the Liberal Party become so comfortable on the opposition benches that they can’t fathom the thought of governing?

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto is not walking away from a fight to keep his position while the Liberals scramble to find common ground. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Victorian Liberals must fear success.

Have they become so comfortable on the opposition benches over the past 25 years that they can’t fathom the thought of governing?

There was that brief four-year blip between 2010 and 2014 in which they gave it a shot.

But they worked hard, very hard, and managed to make a speedy return to their natural habitat.

A decade on, and with the polls showing they could win government at the 2026 election, they appear terrified at the prospect.

And so they’re doing their level best to gift wrap a historic fourth consecutive election win for Jacinta Allan’s Labor.

If Allan wins that fourth term, who in the Liberal Party will take blame, or perhaps, the credit?

The task ahead of Opposition Leader John Pesutto right now is a mammoth one.

His detractors say he is a dead man walking, but Pesutto is not one for walking away from a fight.

So instead he will have to fight off moves to blast him out of the job at a partyroom meeting when parliament resumes next Tuesday.

If between now and then a single MP has emerged with enough support to defeat him, a motion to spill the party’s leadership will be moved.

If that gets up, there isn’t a world in which first-term MP Sam Groth doesn’t throw his hand up.

Groth has made no secret of his ambition to lead the state, or his frustration with a perceived lack of direction of his party.

Sam Groth says he would be ready to serve as Victoria’s next premier. Picture: Tony Gough

He is desperate to win, and thinks the party should and could be doing more to make that happen.

Brad Battin is also another likely contender.

Battin lost to Pesutto by a single vote when the went head-to-head for the leadership following the 2022 election.

He has also made no secret of his ambition to run the state, but with two failed attempts at winning the leadership might be on his last chance.

Brad Battin lost to John Pesutto by a single vote for leadership following the 2022 election. Picture: Aaron Francis

Manager of opposition business James Newbury is also increasingly being talked about as a contender.

While many in the party say it wouldn’t be possible, some believe he may have the ability to unite the moderate and conservative factions.

He also has what some consider the political smarts to take a fight up to Labor.

Kim Wells has also been mentioned, as has shadow treasurer Brad Rowswell.

Jess Wilson and David Hodgett are being talked about as potential deputies, if one of the hopeful leaders doesn’t fill the spot.

If there is no standout challenger, a motion of no confidence in Pesutto’s leadership will be moved instead.

All this carries the inherent risk that voters judge the Liberals to still be a rabble and not ready to govern.

The task ahead of Opposition Leader John Pesutto – to unite the Liberals – is a mammoth one. Picture: NewsWire

At the halfway point of the parliamentary term it feels like the party is back at square one.

Either way, Pesutto is living on his knees.

Which is quite the place to be given the Opposition is leading the government by 10 points in the polls.

They are neck and neck on a two-party preferred basis, and almost nothing is going right for the government at the moment.

Nothing, that is, except for their in-built insurance policy that is the guarantee of the Liberal Party’s infighting that leads to implosion.

The last leadership coup, on Michael O’Brien, came months after he recorded a 41 per cent primary vote in June 2021.

The primary vote hasn’t been as high since.

The current plot to overthrow Pesutto has all the hallmarks of the O’Brien challenge — and that took two attempts.

When Pesutto won the leadership his main task was to unite his colleagues.

He has been comprehensively unable to do that, largely because of his decision to expel Moira Deeming from the partyroom in March last year.

John Pesutto expelled Moira Deeming from the partyroom last year over allegations of having neo-Nazi sympathies. Picture: NewsWire

The decision pitted him against women and conservatives and has haunted him since.

He has been completely hamstrung by it, and come under increased scrutiny over the perceived failure to formulate marketable policies.

The current rumblings of a leadership challenge are the third to plague him, and MPs say the most serious.

If there were doubts about his leadership already, the ongoing defamation trial brought by Deeming, has cemented the view among many that it is untenable.

Far from clarifying things in the minds of his colleagues, the case has muddied the waters for Pesutto’s leadership, firmly calling it into question.

And it has given Labor three campaigns worth of material to attack the Liberals on.

The biggest obstacle to change being that there are pockets of supporters forming for different people.

The question is whether they can do what is so anathema to Victorian Liberals — combine behind one person.

Moving forward requires Victorian Liberals to put their personal ambitions and egos aside and put the interests of the party and the state first.

And uniting firmly behind Pesutto, or whoever follows, until 2026.

And it has given Labor three campaigns worth of material to attack the Liberals on.

Originally published as Shannon Deery: It’s time John Pesutto, Liberals put their egos aside and unite for Victoria