Former treasurer Michael O'Brien is the new Victorian Liberal leader, tasked with trying to get the party out of the political wilderness after an election drubbing.
His deputy will be one of only three Liberal women elected into the lower house, Cindy McLeish.
"We're going to be a team that listens and learns the lessons of this election," Mr O'Brien told reporters at parliament on Thursday.
"We need to be back in the centre field of politics, that's where we need to be, that's where Victorians are, and that's where the Liberal Party is going to be."
The Liberals were cut down to just 20 seats out of 88 in the lower house in an election wipe-out that saw Labor claim 56 seats in the November 24 poll.
Mr O'Brien said the result was humbling and the party would reflect on what went wrong, but would not engage in "internal navel gazing" while getting on with keeping an "arrogant" Labor government accountable.
The new leader acknowledged more needed to be done to increase the diversity within the parliamentary party, but argued the Liberals were diverse.
"If you look at our list of candidates at the last election, we had a number of diverse candidates from different multicultural backgrounds and a lot of good female candidates. Unfortunately some of them just didn't get elected," he said.
How to properly tackle climate change would also increasingly be a focus.
"A majority of scientists are telling us climate change is happening, a majority of scientists say humans are contributing to it, so let's not have an argument over whether it's happening or not," Mr O'Brien said.
"Let's have a debate, let's have a contest of good ideas about how we can best address it, that's what I think Victorians want."
Many Liberals said on their way into parliament for the leadership vote on Thursday morning, they heard the message loud and clear from Victorians.
"I don't think we're as in touch as we thought we were and I think our values are good, but we can interpret the message in being more tolerant, more focused on what the people of Australia of Victoria are telling us," South-West Coast MP Roma Britnell said.
One man who was not publicly reflecting on the loss, though, was former leader Matthew Guy, who has still not told the public why he thinks voters handed him a thrashing.
"You can have a chat to the new leader, thanks everyone," he said as he walked into parliament for the party room ballot.
In a statement on Thursday, Deputy Premier James Merlino attacked Mr O'Brien's election.
"It's been clear in recent days that most Liberal MPs prefer the former member for Hawthorn John Pesutto as leader," he said.
"As the last man standing, Michael O'Brien is the Steven Bradbury of the Victorian Liberal Party."
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