Matthew Guy wins spill for Victorian Liberal Party leadership ousting Michael O’Brien

Victorian Liberal MP Matthew Guy has defeated Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien in a stunning takeover of the party’s leadership.

Mr Guy, the party’s leader between 2014 and 2018, defeated Mr O’Brien 20 votes to 11 in a spill motion moved at a party room meeting on Tuesday morning.

Speaking to reporters after the win, Mr Guy acknowledged the work of Mr O’Brien and his deputy Cindy McLeish since taking the leadership in 2018.

“Michael and Cindy have led our party through one of the most difficult periods in history,” he said.

“A lot of you will comment, self appraise, I’ve had plenty of it, I’m sure I’ll get more, but that is the hardest job in politics.

“It is our job to lead us to the Victorian election in 14 months time. We will have a clearer alternative for Victorians, and we will begin to articulate that today.”

While Mr O’Brien conceded he was “disappointed with how things had panned out”, he congratulated his counterpart for his victory.

Mr O’Brien made the decision to not contest the leadership.

“The way I saw it was basically a decision to be made – you either give up your job or you give up your integrity,” he said on Tuesday morning.

“Now’s the time for all Liberals to get behind the Liberal leadership and I think that every Liberal leader deserves support, and Matthew deserves it no less than anyone else,” he said on Tuesday morning.

“It’s important for Liberals to now be united to get behind the new team of Matthew Guy and David Southwick because we have got a job to do and we’ve got a state to save.”

The leadership spill was initiated late on Sunday following months of concern about Mr O’Brien’s leadership capabilities.

It was prompted by concern the Liberals were losing their chance to topple Premier Daniel Andrews at the next state election.

Mr O’Brien called the meeting for 7.45am on Tuesday at the Liberal Party headquarters in Melbourne, telling reporters on Monday he wanted to put speculation to bed.

Entering the room on Tuesday, he told NCA NewsWire that he was “very good” and would make further comment.

Mr Guy said ahead of the spill motion: “I’ll tell you how confident I’m feeling in an hour.”

Leader of the opposition in the Legislative Council David Davis wouldn’t comment on who he would support.

“All these things are the gift of the party room and I will be focused on delivering a good government for Victoria,” he said.

Mr Guy and fellow frontbencher Tim Smith resigned from the shadow cabinet on Monday morning in anticipation of the leadership spill.

Mr Guy’s move for the top job comes almost six months after backbencher Brad Battin attempted to oust Mr O’Brien in a shambolic spill on March 16.

Only nine out of the 31 Victorian Liberal MPs voted to remove Mr O’Brien from the leadership, resulting in an embarrassing defeat for Mr Battin.

Mr O’Brien at the time said the result signified confidence in his leadership.

“This was just an overwhelming endorsement,” Mr O’Brien told reporters following the spill.

“It says I have an overwhelming majority and what that means is we are focused on Victorians.”

Mr Guy had publicly batted away rumours of wanting to take back the leadership for months.

Following the spill, Mr Guy said he had a plan to introduce “new policies” to be released in the lead-up to the November 2022 state election.

It comes amid questioning from reporters if his policies were any different to Mr O’Brien’s.

“Over the next 100 days there‘ll be a clear plan that we will put forward on a range of topics on economic support on families, mental health … those topics will be addressed very clearly,” he said.

“I feel I’m the best person to do something about this, I’m the best person to prosecute that argument against the current premier.

“I’m here to make sure Victorians have an alternative.”

Earlier, Mr Guy made a brief appearance following the spill.

He said he wanted to acknowledge what Victorians had been through since the beginning of the pandemic.

“My thoughts immediately on this day are with all of those people on the frontline working to manage our Covid response here in Victoria,” he said.

“People like my wife and all those other people like myself who yesterday were homeschooling and all the kids homeschooling in our state and have done for a record period of time.

“Although small business people who can‘t open and are doing it very tough today, our thoughts are still with them and with a lot of Victorians who have mental health challenges for the period we have been through for more than 18 months.

“I think we have to think and continue to think how hard it is affecting those people.”

rhiannon.tuffield@news.com.au