Hell hath no fury like a Jeff scorned: after it was revealed that the Victorian Liberal Party’s decision to bail out former leader John Pesutto was allegedly aimed at keeping third-party backers like Jeff Kennett from facing legal action themselves, Kennett quickly responded. The former Liberal responded that “I do not want or need saving!”
His backing, he says, was on ‘principle’. And, he also claims, to bury the matter once and for all.
As it has been proven, settling the case quickly was in the party’s best interests; to resolve and put this matter behind them in order to deliver on their primary function, which is to be an effective opposition.
Oh, really? How’s that ‘putting this matter behind them’ working out, Jeff?
Liberals have launched an eleventh-hour legal bid in the court to unwind the party’s $1.55m bailout of former leader.
The Supreme Court has confirmed that a hearing in relation to the matter has been set down for 4.15pm on Thursday before Justice Michael McDonald.
Liberal administrative committee member Colleen Harkin is listed as a party to the application against the party’s investment arm, Vapold Pty Ltd, and a number of senior office holders.
It appears, then, that the matter is far from ‘behind them’. At least some rank-and-file Liberals are clearly unhappy with the party’s money is being used to save Pesutto from the consequences of his own obstinate stupidity.
A number of Liberals opposed to the party bankrolling the rescue deal are behind the legal move which threatens to further damage the embattled party.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Pesutto’s camp said the ex-opposition leader had cleared his debt to Moira Deeming, with $2.3m being transferred to the Liberal MP’s lawyers on Thursday morning.
“Money now all paid to Mrs Deeming’s solicitors,” a member of the Pesutto camp told the Australian. Mrs Deeming has been approached for comment.
Thursday’s potential $2.3m settlement comes ahead of Friday’s deadline for the former opposition leader to avoid bankruptcy and pre-empts any legal action from Liberal members to stop the party lending Mr Pesutto $1.55m of the sum […]
The former leader said he was “grateful and humbled” by the loan, which saves him from bankruptcy, a development that would force him to resign from parliament and trigger a by-election in Hawthorn.
All of which could have been avoided at any stage, if only Pesutto had taken any of the myriad chances Deeming offered to him to apologise and withdraw his accusations. But Pesutto, ‘funded and egged on’ by senior backroom party figures like, allegedly, Kennett, refused to back down. Now it’s cost him.
And the same backroom figures are using party funds to bail him out?
Mrs Deeming said last week that she was shocked to learn Victorian Liberal Party chiefs used party funds to bail out Mr Pesutto with a $1.55m loan.
In a statement to The Australian, the Liberal MP revealed she had been told senior Liberal MPs and party officials originally backed a peace deal to settle Mr Pesutto’s legal bill without using party funds in exchange for her guaranteed preselection.
If Kennett thinks he and his mates have somehow saved the Vic Libs from themselves and the idiots they keep electing as leader, he’s got another think coming.
