I was premature in my predictions about Moira Deeming and Western Metropolitan. There was another twist I did not see coming.
It has been known for several years that Dinesh Gourisetty, the endorsed candidate for 18 hours for that seat, had been fined heavily over health code violations at a restaurant he owned. This issue was raised by a Liberal Party official four years ago when he sought the Western Metropolitan preselection for the 2022 state election. At that time, that was enough to kibosh his chances of a political career.
This time around, it seemed that everything was forgiven. Despite his conviction for health code violations, he was able to win the endorsement with 37 votes against 29 for Moira and 3 for the second upper house MP, Truong Luu (who is a really good bloke).
Then, on Monday morning, all the triumph came to a premature end. It turned out that two years ago, Dinesh had written a character reference for a friend who ended up getting gaoled for child sex offences. This reference was public record, in that it was held in the AUSLII legal database, easily accessible to anyone who might think to look.
[I do wonder do had actually thought to look and then release this information at the most unfortunate moment, rather than sometime before the preselection convention.]
Suddenly Dinesh no longer looked like a barely viable candidate. The state opposition leader, Jess Wilson, announced that she would not allow him to join the party room after the election. Phillip Davis, the state president, sent out an email late Monday afternoon announcing that the preselection would be redone, without Dinesh as a candidate, and that Dinesh had agreed to step down.
Subsequent news reports suggest that he did not agree to step down, or at least not so readily.
In any event, nominations were reopened almost immediately for the number one spot on the Liberal ticket for Western Metropolitan. The Herald Sun has misinterpreted this as the party making another move against Moira Deeming, rather than the party trying to follow due process, albeit in its usual ham fisted way.
It really is amateur hour. Davis’s opponents on the state executive are demanding he immediately resign – despite the fact that his term is up in May. Some people are calling for a federal takeover of the state division, even though I somehow do not see that the federal apparatus of the Liberal Party looks particularly credible right now.
But the Western Metropolitan debacle is merely symptomatic of a wider malaise in the Victorian Liberals. The state election is scheduled for 28 November, less than 8 months ago. The coalition need to win a minimum of 45 seats – 26 more than they won at the last election. The only endorsed lower house candidates are the 19 in the coalition held seats. Nominations closed on 27 February for 4 marginal seats, and on 27 March for 8 marginal seats. No candidates have been chosen yet in those seats, let alone in the additional 14 minimum seats needed to win government.
Time is growing short to select candidates and get them on the ground, running for office. The lack of candidates is going to hurt.
And every day reduces the likelihood that the candidates will be chosen by a preselection convention involving local grassroots members, rather than appointed by the State Executive.
At this rate, I do not see that Federal intervention in the state Liberals is actually going to make a difference – it will just put a new captain on the bridge of the Titanic at the time after the iceberg has already collided.
Lost For Words! 