Opposition Leader Brad Battin has named Deeming his “representative to the western suburbs”,after her defamation victory against the party’s former leader threatens to push him to the brink of bankruptcy.
Liberal elders are running out of options on how to spare former party leader John Pesutto from bankruptcy,which would force his exit from parliament and a byelection.
Bankruptcy disqualifies anybody from being a member of parliament. Under this scenario,a live possibility,Pesutto would be forced out and a byelection called for his marginal seat of Hawthorn.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin has defended John Pesutto’s shift to the backbench,insisting it was the former leader’s decision.
It now appears inevitable that John Pesutto will lose his position. Liberals are already speaking of his time in office in the past tense.
The party room meeting to decide Pesutto’s fate comes after his last-ditch effort on Sunday to save his job by agreeing to readmit exiled MP and defamation foe Moira Deeming.
Many in the Victorian Liberal Party want John Pesutto to go. If only they could decide who they want to replace him.
The opposition leader says Victorians know him “as a fighter” and that he would be willing to apologise to Moira Deeming in person.
John Pesutto has been given 24 hours to stand down or face a leadership challenge after the narrow vote on allowing Moira Deeming back into the party room cost him support from key backers.
The idea of exiled MP Moira Deeming returning to the Liberal party room after spending 18 months waging lawfare against its leader John Pesutto is,even by their standards,completely bonkers.