Victorian Liberal party shapes up for ‘nastiest, most toxic’ state council in years amid leaks and infighting

Timing is everything in politics. It’s a principle worth recalling when nine-month-old messages are made public just two days before the Victorian Liberals’ annual state council meeting.

The messages, taken from a WhatsApp group involving a small handful of party headquarters staff, are undeniably sexist and inappropriate. In them, Victorian Liberal party director Stuart Smith mocked the party’s women’s council , saying it could only make decisions at a meeting “after two men told them they had to”, and joked that upper house MP Bev McArthur had dementia.

The messages are yet another example of the party’s “woman problem” . The disrespect toward women inside its own ranks is just one reason many female voters have abandoned the Liberals at recent elections.

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