With a new leader and tired opponent, this should be the Victorian Liberals’ year – if not for self-inflicted wounds | Victorian politics

This should be the year of the Victorian Liberal party. They head into the November election with a new, energetic and outspoken leader in Jess Wilson, who has vowed to move her party to the center and reconnect with voters it has lost in recent years.

Across the aisle stands a tired third-term Labor government, burdened by the state’s debt (estimated to reach $192 billion in 2028-29) and more than a decade in power. No Victorian Labor government has been able to secure a fourth term; This should give the Liberals reason for optimism.

But last week he showed once again that he, not Labor, was the biggest obstacle to the party winning government.

The week started on Monday morning with a statement from the party’s star member, Sam Groth, announcing that he would be leaving politics due to infighting in the November election.

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For Wilson, himself only 35, having Groth standing next to him could be an advantage heading into the polls: a visible symbol of a renewed, modern Liberal party. The only upside to Groth’s departure is that it eliminates a potential future rival.

The former professional tennis player joined the party during the pandemic and won back the seat of Nepean from Labor in the 2022 election after receiving special permission to run.

But Groth’s outsider status, combined with his rapid rise from first-term MP to deputy leader, made him unpopular in the Liberal party environment, particularly among colleagues who felt he had not paid his dues and privately described him as unfit for the job.

This hostility manifested itself in backstabbing and backstabbing, eventually crossing the line when the Herald Sun published a series of articles claiming that Groth and his wife Brittany’s relationship may have begun when Groth was underage and under her supervision as a tennis coach.

Groth sued for defamation, and Brittany initiated the first test of a new legal tort for serious invasions of privacy. The matter was ultimately settled out of court and the Herald Sun apologized to the couple, but in its defense it was revealed that an unnamed Liberal MP was at the center of the story.

Groth’s resignation statement alluded to this betrayal: “The public pressure placed on my family in recent months has been significant, and it has been difficult to ignore to realize that some of this has come from my own party.”

This incident is damaging for Wilson, who sees himself as the leader of a unified team.

And his challenges won’t end there. Guardian Australia this week revealed Moira Deeming and Ann-Marie Hermans will face preselection challenges in March, with a potential candidate also being called to run against Renee Heath.

Sources suggest Heath may survive, but Herman’s political career is less certain. And if Deeming’s rival, Dinesh Gourisetty, commands the numbers his supporters claim, along with the backing of the party’s administrative wing, he too is in trouble.

But it would be naive to think that Deeming will leave quietly. The MP became a favorite of the conservative media after successfully taking former leader John Pesutto to court for defamation; The decision belittled his leadership.

He was repeatedly urged not to continue with the defamation suit, but to settle and then offer Pesutto a settlement on the $2.3 million in legal fees he owed. Deeming did not back down.

Unlike Labor, where most political maneuvering is done by its own factions behind closed doors, the Liberals pride themselves on a grassroots preselection process, making it difficult for Wilson to intervene. He is understood to have written approval to all MPs who wanted it, including Heath and Deeming.

Preselection difficulties are said to be greater. Expect damaging headlines between January 14, when nominations close, and voting in late March.

On top of all this is a supreme court case, set to begin in March, that will challenge the legality of the $1.5 million loan the party executive made to Pesutto to pay Deeming’s legal fees. Another sign of the party’s dysfunction is that the case is being pursued by a group of members of the executive branch.

This isn’t something Wilson can dismiss as “historic” like he tried to do with Groth’s resignation.

Clearly the party and Wilson know they have to stay in the middle to win the election. But can he withstand the damage he’ll likely inflict on himself to get there?

Benita Kolovos is Guardian Australia’s Victoria correspondent