who reshuffled his cabinet in early October<\/a>, was visited by a delegation of Liberal MPs yesterday (Monday, November 17) who told him he had lost partyroom support, with others then calling him to deliver the same message.<\/p>\nThe Victorian opposition has slipped in recent polls despite the three-term Labor government grappling with soaring crime and state debt.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media after the vote, Ms Wilson said her focus as leader would be to get the budget under control, rein in crime, improve access to healthcare, and give Victorians opportunities to own homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictorians have a clear choice. A choice between a tired, out of touch Labor government or a new generation Liberal team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Internal tensions have simmered since a crushing defeat at the 2022 election, spilling into a defamation lawsuit by Liberal MP Moira Deeming against the party’s previous leader John Pesutto.<\/p>\n
Mr Battin said the votes did not go his way today but his party had “a very clear path” to the next election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Victorian Liberal Party need to make sure that we\u2019re on the path to ensure that we can get into power at the next election, because we need to see genuine change. We can\u2019t just wait for it to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitics isn\u2019t about just being inside the Parliament. It\u2019s actually about the people \u2013 it\u2019s about the people we\u2019re supposed to be representing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moves among Victorian Liberals come after their federal counterparts abandoned the party’s net-zero emissions policy, stoking speculation of a challenge against leader Sussan Ley.<\/p>\n
\u00a0– WITH AAP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Victorian Liberals have appointed their first female leader as the beleaguered party eyes the next state election. Less than a year after Brad Battin was chosen to head the party, he faced a partyroom spill earlier today (Tuesday, November 18), with Kew MP Jess Wilson, a 35-year-old former staffer to ex-federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, […]<\/p>\n
Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":123795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-123794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVictorian Liberals elect first female leader - Geelong Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Victorian Liberals have chosen Jess Wilson, 35, as their first female leader, ousting Brad Battin to reset ahead of the next election.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/geelongtimes\/news\/victorian-liberals-elect-first-female-leader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Victorian Liberals elect first female leader - 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