Under-pressure Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy is facing a censure motion over an old, botched Phillip Island planning decision.
The Andrews Labor government will use its majority in the lower house to condemn Mr Guy and demand his resignation over a multi-million dollar settlement he made with would-be developers to avoid a politically damaging court fight.
"The censure motion is really a stain on your political and parliamentary reputation and career, it stands on the books forevermore," Leader of the Government in the assembly Jacinta Allan told reporters.
The motion will be debated on Thursday.
It's part of a sustained attack by the government against Mr Guy over the former planning minister's rezoning backflip during the previous coalition government.
In 2011, Mr Guy approved rezoning farmland for housing at Ventnor on Phillip Island, sparking widespread community outrage including by US pop star Miley Cyrus, whose actor-fiance Liam Hemsworth is from the island.
The decision was soon reversed, but that move prompted legal action from the would-be developer, who also had links to the Liberal Party.
In 2013, the matter settled out of court for a then-secret sum.
In an extraordinary move, the government on Monday tabled 80,000 pages of documents on the matter, revealing taxpayers were slugged about $3.5 million to settle and avoid a politically damaging court battle.
"The government of the day is obsessed with the opposition. How about being obsessed with the problems of our state?" Mr Guy said.
He has defended the payout, saying it would have been a "lawyers picnic" if the matter had gone to court.
The opposition last month pulled a similar parliamentary manoeuvre to the government's censure motion, trying and failing to move a motion of no confidence over Labor's rorts-for-votes scandal.
The government is under investigation for the misuse of parliamentary allowances to partially fund campaign staff ahead of the 2014 election campaign.
At the time, the government called the opposition motion a stunt, but on Wednesday said its motion was legitimate.
Last year it was also revealed Mr Guy dined with alleged mafia leader Tony Madafferi, prompting "lobster with a mobster" headlines.
On Wednesday Fairfax reported Premier Daniel Andrews may have also dined with the controversial figure in 2002 at a Labor fundraiser but he dismissed questions on the subject saying it was "16 years ago, a dinner with 500 people".
"I will tell you what I haven't done, I have not sat down with that individual and had lobster and Grange - there's only one political leader who has done that and it wasn't me," Mr Andrews said.
Share
