A political expert says new state Liberal leader Jess Wilson’s great challenge is to unite her “polarised” party room.
Wilson, a touted ‘Moderate’ MP, deposed Berwick MP Brad Battin as Opposition Leader in a leadership spill on 18 November.
Monash University politics senior lecturer Dr Zareh Ghazarian says that opting for the more progressive Wilson – the Victorian Liberals’ first female leader – was a “major shift”.
It put the State Liberals more aligned with federal Liberal’s moderate leader Sussan Ley, he said.
Elevating the Kew MP Wilson over outer-suburban Battin also made the party more attractive to its former inner-city heartland.
“The big challenge for Jess Wilson is not just in advocating a new policy agenda and lifting her public profile, but to unite different strands of the Liberal Party who have often been polarised between conservative MPs and progressive MPs.”
Battin was ousted because there was a “growing sense” from MPs that the party wasn’t making inroads in the polls and wanted to “gamble” on a new leader.
“I don’t think there was one moment or gaffe that led to this. There’s reports that he didn’t make many friends in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.”
