{"id":689859,"date":"2026-05-23T17:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689859\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T17:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T17:26:19","slug":"brian-loughnane-new-liberal-state-president-urges-party-unity-ahead-of-victorias-november-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/689859\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Loughnane: New Liberal state president urges party unity ahead of Victoria’s November election"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brian Loughnane used his first speech as Liberal state president to urge his notoriously fractious party to put aside its differences for six months and give Opposition Leader Jess Wilson a clear run at the November election.<\/p>\n

The experienced backroom political operator said the Allan government had \u201cbroken Victoria\u201d and Liberal Party members needed to put the interests of the state ahead of their own internal disputes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is about the resolution of differences,\u201d he told the party\u2019s annual state council. \u201cNaturally, there are differences occasionally within our party on various issues. That is healthy, and in my view, it\u2019s essential for a vibrant party.<\/p>\n

\"OppositionOpposition Leader Jess Wilson, with son Patrick, is embraced by parliamentary colleagues and party members at Saturday\u2019s state council meeting.Jason South<\/p>\n

\u201cBut from today, our state must come first and we must come together. We must not, not one single one of us, do anything in the next six months that assists Labor\u2019s campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loughnane, the party\u2019s federal campaign director during the long-serving Howard government, agreed to step in as state president until the election, at the request of Wilson and senior party figures, to stabilise the party\u2019s administrative wing. He replaced Phil Davis, who stood down after serving three years in the volunteer role. Loughnane is married to Sky News commentator Peta Credlin, whose former boss Tony Abbott has just been announced<\/a> as federal Liberal president.<\/p>\n

Loughnane\u2019s call for unity, which follows years of factional warfare within the state division and was issued against the backdrop of continuing legal action between members of the party\u2019s governing administrative committee, was one of two key messages at the state council.<\/p>\n

The second, delivered by Wilson and reiterated by federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor, was a directive to all rank-and-file Liberal members to convince their friends, family and work colleagues to resist the lure of One Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need you to tell everyone you know this,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou can\u2019t vote teal. You can\u2019t vote orange. You must vote Liberal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny other choice leaves a pathway for Labor to cling on to power and continue to drive this state into the dust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor, who since taking the federal leadership has shifted the Liberal Party onto a harder, anti-immigration stance to counter surging support for One Nation, used his speech to road test a new slogan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the vote sprays, Labor stays,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people want to get rid of a rotten Labor government, they must vote Liberal.<\/p>\n

\"BluntBlunt message: Incoming Liberal president Brian Loughnane (centre) seated next to the party\u2019s federal leader Angus Taylor and Victorian leader Jess Wilson.Jason South<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has a part in coming months to explain that to our family members, our work colleagues, our friends, our neighbours, fellow sporting team members. If the vote sprays, Labor stays \u2013 and we cannot afford for Labor to stay in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The twin messages acknowledge the Liberal Party\u2019s two biggest obstacles to returning to government in Victoria for just the second time this century \u2013 its tendency towards organisational self-harm, and Pauline Hanson\u2019s populist alternative eating into the Liberal Party\u2019s primary vote.<\/p>\n

Although none of the speakers mentioned Hanson by name, her extraordinary resurgence since the end of last year has reshaped this year\u2019s Victorian political contest and the challenge confronting Wilson, who needs to secure an additional 16 Coalition seats to form majority government.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Retiring<\/a><\/p>\n

Premier Jacinta Allan, who took over from Daniel Andrews in 2023, is seeking a historic fourth consecutive term for Labor. Wilson, in comments to journalists on the sidelines of the state council, said anti-Labor sentiment on its own would not change the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just need to run a campaign about why we shouldn\u2019t re-elect the Allan Labor government, but why Victorians should vote for the Liberal and Nationals Party,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is something that we will talk about every day over the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s set-piece address contained no new policy initiatives but coloured in a campaign narrative that portrays Victoria as a state of corruption, debt and decay, while promising a \u201ccalm and methodical\u201d pathway to fiscal repair.<\/p>\n

Wilson, a 36-year-old, first-term MP, is a second-generation Liberal parliamentarian whose likeability among voters has emerged as her party\u2019s strongest electoral asset. Her campaign slogan \u2013 \u201ca fresh start\u201d \u2013 seeks to make a virtue of her youth and relative inexperience compared with Allan, who is the longest-serving female minister in any Australian parliament.<\/p>\n

\"JessJess Wilson used Saturday\u2019s set-piece speech to colour in her campaign narrative.Jason South.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m running for premier because I believe in the promise of Victoria – and in the hope that comes with it,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a state that was optimistic, ambitious and full of opportunity. People believed that if you worked hard, the future would be brighter for your children than it was for you. Too many Victorians have lost that sense of hope. I want to restore it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s campaign promises so far include a hiring freeze on back-office public servants, abolition of treaty with the state\u2019s First Peoples, opening up the state to more gas exploration, scrapping a series of state-based taxes and returning the state to an underlying cash surplus by 2032.<\/p>\n

The government has dubbed the opposition leader \u201cJess Kennett\u201d and warns her repair plan would require $40 billion of undeclared spending cuts.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"ChipChip Le Grand<\/a> leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper\u2019s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years\u2019 experience.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-689859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689859","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=689859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}