Liberals scramble to reorganise state council as director resigns over disparaging remarks

Victorian Liberals are frantically reorganising this weekend’s state council and preparing to open preselections without party director Stuart Smith, who resigned on Thursday for making derogatory jokes about women.

Former staffer Nadine Jones, who settled a Fair Work dispute with the party over bullying complaints against head office earlier this year, when she alleged sexist remarks were made, said she was relieved Smith had been held to account for his behaviour.

Opposition Leader Brad Battin and Liberal MP Bev McArthur – who Smith joked had dementia in WhatsApp messages leaked to the press – also welcomed the director’s resignation.

“Despite my demure, diminutive, dementia-ridden demeanour, I’m a big girl. I can take this,” McArthur said on Thursday.

Smith has apologised for his comments.

Head of membership Felicity Redfern has been appointed acting state director and will take over running the party’s state council this weekend at Moonee Valley Racecourse.

Liberal state president Phil Davis will be challenged by his predecessor Greg Mirabella at the meeting of party faithful on Saturday.

Smith is aligned to Davis.

Davis has been defending a court challenge to the party’s decision to approve a $1.55 million loan to former leader John Pesutto. A handful of members on the administrative committee claim the decision was unconstitutional.

The committee approved the loan in June, sparing Pesutto bankruptcy and the party a byelection in his marginal seat of Hawthorn, after the Federal Court found he had repeatedly defamed his colleague Moira Deeming and ordered he pay $2.3 million worth of her costs.

Davis has called for members to resign from the administrative committee if they held “contempt” for democratic decisions.

Most members of the administrative committee will be challenged on Saturday, and several Liberals speculated that the leak of the WhatsApp messages was timed to cause maximum damage to his supporters.

The final make-up of the committee will ultimately choose the next state director to replace Smith.

Preselections for all lower house seats open on Monday. Preparing for the 2026 election campaign without a state director alarmed many Liberals on Thursday.

Some sitting Liberals MPs have been warned that they will be challenged at preselection.

Smith resigned on Thursday morning “in the best interests of the party” after The Australian published leaked WhatsApp messages from December 2024. Along with mocking McArthur, he had suggested the women’s council passed a resolution only when two men told them to.

“In the best interests of the party, I have tendered my resignation to minimise distractions from the important task of winning the next election,” Smith said in a statement.

“I regret the comments and have apologised for them. I thank the party for the opportunity and wish the team well.”

The Age has not obtained the Smith messages in question. However, this masthead in May reported the existence of a WhatsApp group involving Smith that was causing alarm, when the former executive director of the party’s fundraising body, Enterprise Victoria, lodged a dispute with Fair Work.

That dispute has since been settled, with a six-figure payout, sources told The Age.

Jones alleged that she was sacked from Enterprise Victoria for complaining about bullying at head office. The party rejected that.

She made a 36-page statement to Fair Work, obtained by The Age. She claimed she was set up to fail, excluded, given unachievable performance indicators, denigrated, had witnessed sexist comments and was the target of a more than year-long campaign to “get rid of Nadine”.

All allegations were denied by the party.

Her affidavit was sent to every member of the administrative committee. Multiple Liberals have told The Age they should have acted on her claims about the workplace, and some have been critical of Smith and Davis for not recusing themselves from that matter and questioned whether they were acting for the good of the party or themselves.

Jones was sympathetic to the women who had been denigrated by Smith and said on Thursday she was not surprised at the revelations.

“Absolutely not. I’m relieved that he’s been held accountable … for the good of the party,” Jones said. “I’m glad not to be there any more. The experience was horrific.”

She reaffirmed her position that the Liberal Party head office was full of misogyny and bullying.

McArthur said on Thursday that Smith’s resignation was the only acceptable course of action.

“Trashing of women is just not acceptable in this world, not in the political world, not in the corporate world,” she said.

Battin said: “Stuart Smith’s resignation was the right thing to do. His comments were unacceptable and do not reflect the standards of professionalism, integrity and inclusion that we all expect of each other.”

“I lead a team that aspires to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and inclusion. My focus, and the focus of every one of my MPs, is to deliver real solutions for every Victorian – safer communities, better services and cost-of-living relief.”

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