Victorian Liberals leadership spill LIVE: Brad Battin set to be challenged by Jess Wilson

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7.17am

Analysis: Instead of avoiding a coup, Battin prompted one

By Chip Le Grand

In the weeks since Brad Battin threw around the magnets on his whiteboard to try to come up with a winning shadow ministry line-up, his leadership was bitten and in all likelihood doomed.

As he limps into this morning’s party room meeting – where the numbers, according to those doing the counting, are well stacked against him – he can ruefully pencil in October 10 as the day his short, unsuccessful leadership came a cropper.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin with his team at the Liberal Party state council in September.

There is good reason that parliamentary leaders don’t like reshuffling their frontbenches. Whatever the merits of any promotion or demotion, it inevitably creates ill will among people who may one day have a decisive vote on whether you get to keep your job.

Battin, according to the best estimates provided to this masthead, managed with his October reshuffle to infuriate, anger or mildly irritate about half a dozen of his Liberal colleagues, including some whose support was critical to him securing the leadership last Christmas.

Read state political editor Chip Le Grand’s analysis in full here.

7.02am

Who is leadership challenger Jess Wilson?

By Annika Smethurst

In just three years, Kew MP Jess Wilson has climbed from new Liberal recruit to shadow treasurer – a swift rise that has cast her as one of the key figures to revive the bruised Victorian Liberal Party.

Raised in Melbourne’s east and educated at Strathcona Girls Grammar, Wilson grew up steeped in politics. Her father, Ron Wilson – whom she has described as her “first political hero” – was also a state Liberal MP.

Jess Wilson will make a run for the Liberal Party leadership.

Like her father, Wilson served as president of the Monash University Liberal Club, and later as state president of the Victorian Young Liberals.

Elected to the blue-ribbon seat of Kew in 2022, Wilson was immediately promoted to the frontbench as part of a new guard of Liberal MPs keen to rebuild the battered Victorian party.

You can read Annika Smethurst’s full profile of Wilson here.

6.50am

What we know about the leadership spill

Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin will face a leadership challenge today, with a party room meeting slated for 8.30am AEDT.

Here’s what we know at this stage:

Sources from across the party’s factional divide confirmed shadow treasurer Jess Wilson had sufficient support to take the leadership.

Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin is facing a leadership challenge.

A cross-factional delegation of MPs – Bev McArthur, Nick McGowan, Renee Heath and Brad Rowswell – met Battin yesterday afternoon to inform him that he had lost the support of the party room.
If Wilson is successful, she will become the third Liberal leader within 11 months, and the first woman to lead the Victorian Liberal Party since the state division was founded 71 years ago.
A successful spill would also open Sam Groth’s position as deputy leader.

The position of deputy leader Sam Groth could also be spilled.

Battin’s leadership was widely considered “terminal” after a reshuffle of his shadow cabinet last month that sought to stall Wilson’s leadership ambitions instead disenfranchised some of his own party room supporters.
Liberal MPs have also complained the opposition has become too one-dimensional in its focus on crime under Battin’s leadership.

6.42am

Welcome to our live blog

By Cassandra Morgan

Good morning,

Welcome to our live coverage of the Victorian Liberal Party’s leadership spill.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin will face a leadership challenge this morning, as state Liberal MPs launch a spill to reboot their party’s bleak electoral fortunes.

It is understood shadow treasurer Jess Wilson, one of the youngest and newest Liberals in parliament, will nominate as leader.

The party room meeting is set to begin at 8.30am AEDT.

We will bring you updates as we confirm them.