Aaron Smith

I rarely put pen to paper, but this privileged experience was worth the exception. Four days, a lot of walking, a few people I admire enormously, and several I do not. It's all in here👇 /2 substacktools.com/sharex/NV5…

Happy Friday from Victoria, where life remains stubbornly pleasant despite repeated assurances we're living in hell.

I’d like to congratulate Dave Hughes on a remarkable run with the Victorian Liberals. Before the risk of breaching Victoria’s electoral donation laws brought his Liberal gigs to an end, Hughesy put his name to two appearances worth revisiting. First, he appeared alongside Bev McArthur, who has since been referred to IBAC over her use of taxpayer funds for overseas flights. Then he did a Williamstown pub talk with Liberal candidate Paul Lindemann, who today was disendorsed over racist posts about Indigenous Australians from an anonymous Facebook account. Congratulations, @DHughesy, your support of these two compromised LIberal candidates has made economics look like your strong suit.

Annika’s coverage of Hawthorn has been quite selective. Perhaps she’s pacing herself? There is, as many know, an elephant in the Hawthorn room. If Pesutto hangs on in Hawthorn, and the loan from Vapold (the Liberal investment arm), which helped him stave off bankruptcy has to be unwound as a consequence of ongoing legal action, what happens to Hawthorn? For the record, although I am no fan of the Liberal Party, and especially its current incarnation, I think it’s outrageous that the Liberal Party didn’t cover Pesutto’s legal costs. The dispute with Deeming arose from actions he took and words he said in the capacity of leader. The party should have stood behind him. But such is the turmoil in the Liberal party, it didn’t, and John ended up with an astronomical bill - likely more than $3M including his own costs, Deeming's costs and the compensation paid to Deeming. People outside his party chipped in for some of his costs. Among them, remarkably, was Shima Ibuki, the independent now standing against him in Hawthorn. She and many others were prepared to chip in to help him with a bill I think his own party should have covered, but those donations fell very short of the total. The ongoing legal challenge to the $1.55 million loan the party advanced to Pesutto to help him pay Deeming’s costs is reported to be back to court sometime in the new year. The Liberals clearly had an interest in pushing it beyond the election, given the existence of the loan in first instance was to prevent a by-election in Hawthorn. If the legal action results in a finding that the loan breached the party’s constitution, which is the basis of the current Liberal on Liberal legal action, will it have to be unwound? What happens then, because it was effectively a loan of last resort to stave off imminent bankruptcy? Even if the loan survives, by my estimate, servicing it on an MP's salary, assuming an interest rate around 7.5% will consume somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of John's after-tax income. That’s before his own defence costs, which earlier reporting put at around $1 million. How much Pesutto owes is unclear, although the existence of it remains disclosed on his Parliamentary register, and how that debt will be ultimately discharged has not been reported or countenanced as far as I've seen. So even if Hawthorn re-elects Pesutto, it could find itself back at the polls if the financial fallout leaves him unable to remain in Parliament. The Age has declared Hawthorn a seat of interest. You’d think that this giant mess of the Liberal Party’s own making, one that could send voters back to the polls, might be of interest too.

I thought this was real until I read the the bit about One Nation apologising.

Jess Wilson’s number two choice, One Nation, says it won’t fund health services it doesn’t like. Which services? Please consult the unpublished policy, the never published costings and whatever they said most recently.

Roy Morgan has Victoria first in business confidence. Honestly, what’s the point of commissioning a survey if it won’t even shit on Victoria?

Long-form interviews with candidates are far too rare. This one is compelling. Kew has embraced independent representation at federal and local levels. The Liberals have held Kew for 99 years. They once thought Kooyong was theirs forever, too. Now Kew is on the verge of making history.

One Nation sets a low bar. Jess WIlson's Liberals have put them second.