Attacks on new Victorian Liberal Party leader Jess Wilson have started, just a day in
Attacks on newly-minted Opposition Leader, Jess Wilson, have started — just a day after she was installed. But party insiders say a meeting with her ousted predecessor Brad Battin was “friendly”.
The personal attacks have started just a day after Jess Wilson took on the top job for the Liberals, with a senior Labor minister accusing her of being “breathtakingly inexperienced”.
Ms Wilson’s first task of the day was to meet her predecessor Brad Battin for an office handover.
In a meeting described by party insiders as “friendly”, the ousted leader and his team agreed to hand over resources, with one figure noting “Brad is not the kind to hold a grudge and his focus is on the party”.
On the other side of town, Premier Jacinta Allan was out on the front foot early defending her economic credentials and finalising her latest crime blitz.
In Sunshine to announce her new “Violence Reduction Unit” in schools, she rebuffed concerns the next state election could be a referendum on the management of the economy.
“We have a strong, thriving economy here in Victoria,” she said.
As the Premier arrived back at parliament, Ms Wilson was forging head with the opposition’s crime agenda, meeting Queensland father Brett Beasley – whose son Jack was fatally stabbed – to advocate for the former Battin‑led opposition’s key knife‑crime policy, Jack’s Law.
The pivot to crime came after Ms Wilson went straight for Labor’s massive debt pile on Tuesday, declaring it was her “first priority”.
The assault continued in Question Time on Wednesday as she drilled Ms Allan over health funding, noting the ballooning interest bill was blowing out surgical waitlists.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll sarcastically congratulated Ms Wilson for being the “sixth opposition leader in seven years” as Labor continued to paint the opposition as a fractured rabble.
Earlier in the day, senior minister Steve Dimopoulos had also blasted Ms Wilson – a first term MP – as “breathtakingly inexperienced”.
Hours after Ms Allan’s early morning press conference, Ms Wilson faced the media, pledging to unveil a new debt strategy, noting state debt was set to reach $194bn by 2028-29.
However, she would not commit to implementing a debt target – similar to that of former Labor Premier Steve Bracks – or a timeline for the policy.
“We will work towards what our economic framework looks like … how to manage our debt, how to stabilise our debt and pay that debt back,” she said.
The new opposition leader was also hammered over whether there would be room for Mr Battin and former leader John Pesutto in her shadow cabinet, and who would take over as shadow treasurer – a position she had scored in a reshuffle just last month.
Spring St insiders are also already questioning when she will unveil her own policy ideas.
Liberal sources said if Ms Wilson hadn’t rolled out a centrepiece policy in each of her four target areas – wrangling debt, healthcare, housing affordability and crime – by the end of February panic would start to set in.
Like her predecessor, Ms Wilson promised to “pause and review” the Suburban Rail Loop and, in a bid to quash murmurs that she is ‘Labor-lite’, recommitted to repealing Treaty.
As conservative figurehead Bev McArthur settled into her new role as upper house leader, Labor MPs tried to portray Ms Wilson as being compromised by the conservative flank of the Liberal Party.
Originally published as Attacks on new Victorian Liberal Party leader Jess Wilson have started, just a day in
New Libs leader reveals first policy
