Liberal MPs call for unity as blame game begins over Victorian election disaster

Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy and the state's party president Michael Kroger are in the firing line after Saturday's devastating loss.

2018 Victorian election

Mathew Guy Source: AAP

Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger is rebuffing calls for him to resign after the party's state election obliteration - and Labor Premier Daniel Andrews is backing him all the way.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett spectacularly called for Mr Kroger to resign on live television before midnight on Saturday, a suggestion Mr Kroger was quick to rebuke.

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Speaking on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday, Mr Andrews took a pointed swipe at his political opponents.

"Swanning around the suburbs that you've never been to in your Burberry trench coat lecturing people about the cost of living - people pick fakes and they pick nasty fakes from a long way off," Mr Andrews said.

"I hope that he's the Liberal Party president for life."
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There are calls for Liberal party president Michael Kroger to resign.
AAP

Senior federal Liberal minister Greg Hunt called for the party to unify and avoid fighting between the state division and the state parties.

"I don't think this is is time for people in any position within the Liberal Party to be casting aspersions," he told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

"I think the very message is that we all need to work together collaboratively."

The blame game within the Victorian Liberals started soon after counting started to reveal the level of damage.

The party, which campaigned on "Get Back In Control", saw a spiralling decline in their vote, with safe seats falling to Labor or becoming marginal.
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Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy, with his wife Renae, after conceding defeat.
AAP

Shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto, who won his seat of Hawthorn by 8.6 per cent in 2014 and is now watching it balance on a knife's edge, told the ABC on Saturday night that the party needed to regroup.

"We clearly have to do a root and branch review. We shouldn't be in this position," he said

"We did a lot of things right but obviously something has gone horribly wrong."

Liberal state leader Matthew Guy conceded the election at Bulleen's Veneto Club, in his own electorate which has also had a chunk taken out of his vote, where he called on the party to remain united.


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Presented by Yang J. Joo

Source: SBS News, AAP




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