Timing is everything in politics. It’s a principle worth recalling when nine-month-old messages are made public just two days before the Victorian Liberals’ annual state council meeting.
The messages, taken from a WhatsApp group involving a small handful of party headquarters staff, are undeniably sexist and inappropriate. In them, Victorian Liberal party director Stuart Smith mocked the party’s women’s council, saying it could only make decisions at a meeting “after two men told them they had to”, and joked that upper house MP Bev McArthur had dementia.
The messages are yet another example of the party’s “woman problem”. The disrespect toward women inside its own ranks is just one reason many female voters have abandoned the Liberals at recent elections.
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The only possible outcome after the messages’ publication was for Smith to resign – which he did within hours of the story becoming public. Guardian Australia understands Felicity Redfern will be stepping in as the party’s acting state director as the search begins for his replacement.
But there is no doubt it was clearly a targeted leak, timed for maximum impact.
Smith is aligned with the party president, Philip Davis, and other moderate members of the administrative committee, who are up for re-election on Saturday.
The committee plays a critical role in shaping the party’s direction – largely through its involvement in candidate preselections, which will begin the Monday after state council.
It is also responsible for funding decisions, including approving a $1.5m loan to former party leader John Pesutto to help him pay defamation costs owed to Moira Deeming. Davis himself was instrumental in drafting the loan and its conditions.
The loan will loom large at this weekend’s meeting, especially as five administrative committee members – Colleen Harkin, Erin Hunt, Anthony Schneider, Ian Pugh and Marcus Li – have launched legal action against the remaining members, including federal MP Dan Tehan and the state opposition leader, Brad Battin, over its approval.
The matter has been sent to mediation by the supreme court but this is unlikely to begin before the weekend.
Harkin, in her candidate biography for the role of administrative committee metropolitan female, pointed directly to “$2m of party funds” being spent “unnecessarily” as “a result of poor governance”.
She said “unrest” within the party wouldn’t be resolved unless it began to “act with integrity internally”.
Davis, meanwhile, is facing a challenge from his predecessor, Greg Mirabella, who is understood not to have supported the Pesutto loan.
While Davis has pitched himself as a steady hand to guide the party through “the final leg of the state political cycle”, having “rebuilt” the party’s professional arm and campaign and policy units, Mirabella accused the party of having “failed the people of Victoria in recent times”.
“If the Victorian division cannot achieve some form of success in 2026, the impact will be felt nationally,” his biography reads.
“Time is desperately short, and the Liberal party’s future is at stake. This is not overstating the situation.”
Another candidate, who requested anonymity so they could speak frankly, described the buildup to the votes as the “nastiest, most toxic, most aggressive state council I have ever been involved with”.
“The leaking, the undermining, the untruths – it’s been next level,” they said.
Another Liberal member, who requested anonymity for the same reason, said if Davis was successfully re-elected and had the numbers to control the administrative committee, the group will move to block Deeming from being preselected again and push for the suspension of Harkin.
“It’s at a major crossroads right now, that’s why so many people are so desperate,” they said.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s unlikely the internal battles will ease – or that Labor won’t continue to capitalise on them.
As Liberal MPs tried to land blows on the government over crime and alleged corruption on Big Build sites, they were forced to answer questions on the saga but refused to say whether the party had a woman problem.
Right on cue, Labor minister Danny Pearson described it as proof the party remained “deeply divided”.
“If you cannot govern yourselves, how on earth are you going to be able to govern the state? If this is how they treat each other, how are they going to treat ordinary Victorians?” he told reporters outside parliament.
Battin, meanwhile, dodged the media and issued a brief statement saying Smith’s resignation was “the right thing to do”.
One faint glimmer of hope for the party lies in its policy forum committee, made up of rank-and-file members who have been meeting with MPs and experts to draft motions before state council.
They include motions urging the federal Liberal party to introduce 52 weeks of paid parental leave, with four weeks for the second parent, expanding the childcare subsidy to cover family-nominated carers such as grandparents, and housing reforms such as deferring most of the stamp duty for seniors downsizing to a cheaper principal residence.
The motions, though non-binding, undoubtedly would resonate with women and younger voters who the party has lost at recent elections.
But even the committee’s chair, David Mulholland, has warned “good policy is not enough”.
In a report to members, seen by Guardian Australia, he warned “internal factionalism” and a “self-defeating internal culture” were holding the party back.
“We must have the courage to build the modern, professional, and accountable organisation required to deliver victory for the people of Victoria,” he wrote.
Benita Kolovos is Guardian Australia’s Victorian state correspondent
