Inside story: Vincent Tarzia's downfall as Liberal leader and the bid to replace him with Ashton Hurn
Inside story of Vincent Tarzia's downfall and the Liberals’ desperate bid to avoid annihilation under Ashton Hurn.
The undermining of Vincent Tarzia started a fortnight ago, after Victorian Liberal Jess Wilson’s perfectly executed leadership coup.
Moderate Liberals, outside the state party room, were fearful of annihilation at next March’s state election and believed a leadership switch to first-term MP Ashton Hurn would save some seats.
Kellie Sloane, raised in the Barossa Valley like Ms Hurn, was on the brink of succeeding Mark Speakman as New South Wales Liberal leader – he resigned on November 20 and she was elected unopposed the next day.
Ahead of state parliament’s final sitting week before next March’s state election, Liberals were circulating messages painting the interstate leadership transitions as a model.
“This is getting thrown around a bit at the moment. Some think this is the last moment to strike and put Hurn in before it’s too late. It’s Hurn’s if she wants it (but) she seems to be reluctant,” one Liberal powerbroker told The Advertiser on November 18.
“It could all be speculative but the events of this week interstate seem to have prompted talk in party circles.”
Fast forward to Friday, and The Advertiser exclusively revealed that Mr Tarzia had spectacularly quit, insisting he had decided that morning without being pushed, or any input from colleagues.
Asked by The Advertiser if any of his parliamentary colleagues or anyone in the Liberal Party forced the decision in any way, Mr Tarzia said he had seen no evidence of his leadership being undermined.
“No one has come to see me. I mean, last week there were reports, rumours flying around. There was no such delegation. I’m not even sure how that even stacks up. I do not understand how that even stacks up,” he said.
Immediately after the exclusive story was published, one conservative powerbroker called to ask rhetorically: “Have you ever seen a bigger act of political self-harm?”
Upper house Liberal and Waite candidate Frank Pangallo fuelled the public evidence of undermining of Mr Tarzia, that he and other colleagues had emphatically rejected, by insisting “forces made him have to leave”. But he did not elaborate and insisted Mr Tarzia had not been pushed.
Earlier, some conservatives had fingered rival moderate frontbencher Jack Batty as a key figure in the push to install Ms Hurn as leader. He declined to comment on Friday after Mr Tarzia’s announcement.
But state conservatives and moderates rallied behind Ms Hurn as the party’s next leader, even before she officially declared her hand.
It is understood Ms Hurn has signalled to colleagues that she will nominate for the leadership at a party room meeting at 9.30am on Monday but has yet to formally put her hand up.
She is all-but certain to be elected unopposed after Liberal deputy leader Josh Teague on Friday afternoon declared he would not contest the top job – he has lost out in two previous attempts.
At a press conference, Mr Teague said he expected to remain as deputy. Later, there was speculation about calling a spill on Monday to replace him in that role.
In further speculation, disgraced former opposition leader David Speirs was said to have told Liberal associates that he would not stand as an independent in his former southwestern Adelaide seat of Black – if Ms Hurn became leader.
Mr Speirs did not respond to requests to confirm this from The Advertiser but endorsed Ms Hurn as leader on ABC radio.
“I would love to see Ashton Hurn take that role. I think she’s got class, intellect. She’s a dynamic young woman. It might have come earlier to her than she hoped for, but with the right team around her, and she’s the right person to assemble that team, I think she can do pretty well,” he said.
Labor has already war-gamed a transition to Ms Hurn and quickly started attacking on Friday.
Expect to hear plenty more rhetoric like that from Health Minister Chris Picton: “Obviously the shambles that is in the Liberal Party continues.”
Labor will screen, over and over again, footage from just a week ago of Ms Hurn denying leadership ambition and insisting Mr Tarzia would lead the Liberals to the next election.
Ms Hurn will counter by highlighting, as Mr Teague did on Friday, Premier Peter Malinauskas’s integral role in tapping Mike Rann as leader in 2011.
Liberals believe Ms Hurn can save them from annihilation at next March’s election, because she matches up more effectively against Mr Malinauskas.
They think his weakness is that he is a blokey sports jock, who will struggle to counter an intelligent, eloquent woman like Ms Hurn.
The test of that theory will, almost certainly, start on Monday morning, when the latest attempt to haul the Liberal Party from the brink of oblivion seems set to start under Ms Hurn.
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Originally published as Inside story: Vincent Tarzia's downfall as Liberal leader and the bid to replace him with Ashton Hurn
