{"id":134341,"date":"2025-09-11T03:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134341\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T03:45:06","slug":"victorian-liberals-director-resigns-after-messages-mocking-the-partys-womens-council-revealed-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/134341\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Liberals director resigns after messages mocking the party\u2019s women\u2019s council revealed | Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

The director of the Victorian Liberals<\/a>, Stuart Smith, has resigned after leaked messages were published in which he ridiculed the party\u2019s women\u2019s council and upper house MP Bev McArthur.<\/p>\n

Smith resigned on Thursday morning and apologised for the WhatsApp messages, contained in the Liberal party<\/a> headquarters staff group chat, which were published by the Australian on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

In the messages, Smith said the Liberal Women\u2019s Council \u2013 the peak body representing women in the Victorian branch \u2013 were only able to reach resolutions at a meeting \u201cafter two men told them they had to\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also posted a photo of a martini with the caption: \u201cF U LWCV\u201d, an abbreviation for the women\u2019s council.<\/p>\n

In a later exchange, Smith shared a video of McArthur, 76, waving an Australian flag with the comment \u201chere\u2019s Bev with dementia\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Smith said he had apologised for the comments and would resign to avoid distraction for the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the best interests of the party I have tendered my resignation to minimise distractions from the important task of winning the next election. I regret the comments and have apologised for them,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the party for the opportunity and wish the team well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Victorian Liberal leader, Brad Battin, said Smith\u2019s resignation was the \u201cright thing to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis comments were unacceptable and do not reflect the standards of professionalism, integrity and inclusion that we all expect of each other,\u201d Battin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lead a team that aspires to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opposition police spokesperson, David Southwick, said the comments were \u201cinappropriate\u201d and denied the parliamentary party had any involvement in Smith\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, as members of parliament, leave it to our Liberal party headquarters. We don\u2019t get involved in how the party operates,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

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Evan Mulholland, the party\u2019s deputy leader in the upper house, described the comments as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing that he\u2019s resigned and the party has moved on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Danny Pearson, a minister in the Victorian Labor government, said the publication of the messages proved the Liberal party was \u201cdeeply divided\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you cannot govern yourselves, how on earth are you going to be able to govern the state? If this is how they treat each other, how are they going to treat ordinary Victorians?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s departure comes days before the party\u2019s next state council meeting this weekend, where the position of president will be up for re-election. The current president, Philip Davis, and his immediate predecessor, Greg Mirabella, are the only two candidates.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the meeting, preselections will open for candidates ahead of the November 2026 state election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The director of the Victorian Liberals, Stuart Smith, has resigned after leaked messages were published in which he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-134341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}