Latest news with #compromise
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
As John Pesutto faces bankruptcy, the Victorian Liberals struggle to unite
So much of politics is the art of compromise. It's an art form the Victorian Liberals seem unwilling, or unable, to practice as the party once again rips itself apart over the fate of former leader John Pesutto. Unless Mr Pesutto can stump up $2.3 million in the coming weeks, he'll be bankrupted and expelled from state parliament, after he was successfully sued for defamation by his colleague Moira Deeming. On Friday, Mr Pesutto was served an official bankruptcy notice, giving him a 21-day deadline to come up with the money. The Hawthorn MP is desperately trying to raise the money and secure a loan. A proposal for the party to provide that loan still hasn't been landed and is proving a new lightning rod for division and anger. But Mr Pesutto's very public demise is about much more than his defamation defeat — it is about control of the heart of the party. At its core, this contest is about the ideological direction of the Victorian Liberals and is the culmination of years of internal infighting. It's about whether the Liberals are still a "broad church", a term so often used to describe the party. The ABC has spoken to more than a dozen Liberal MPs past and present as well as party figures, who wished to speak anonymously to frankly discuss the state of the party. None, from either side of a widening factional divide, say the opposition is presenting itself as a credible alternative government, despite myriad challenges facing Victorians. The state party room is characterised by personal animus, a focus on petty internal disputes and a desperation to control the party. "It's all about promoting self above the party and the values it can bring to the state or country." After more than a decade in opposition, some Liberals believe MPs are gripped by "institutional opposition", where the only mission goal is internal control. In a sign of just how widespread the rancour is, MPs loyal to both Mr Pesutto and Ms Deeming described the other as a "terrorist" intent on damaging the party just to get their way. Those supporting Ms Deeming think Mr Pesutto should take his medicine and leave parliament if he cannot pay the money. While those behind Mr Pesutto, including former Premier Jeff Kennett, say the party must support a man who was acting in his capacity as leader. "Can you imagine the Labor Party allowing one of their own to be bankrupted,'' Mr Kennett recently wrote to the party's powerful administrative committee, who may decide on a loan for Mr Pesutto. "There are only two questions you need to answer. What is in the best interests of the party? What must we do to give ourselves any chance of winning the state election?" The saga started in early 2023. Ms Pesutto tried to expel Ms Deeming, an outspoken first-term MP, over her attendance at an anti-trans-rights rally. The event, entitled Let Women Speak and categorised by supporters as a women's rights event, was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. But Mr Pesutto's expulsion attempts backfired, and a court ultimately found he had defamed Ms Deeming on multiple occasions by conveying that she associated with neo-Nazis. In suing Mr Pesutto, Ms Deeming threw out the rule book and disrupted the status quo. "They want someone like me to quit,'' Ms Deeming said in a recent online interview with Club Grubbery, a website started to "provide a voice for all those adversely impacted by the COVID madness". Both Ms Deeming and Mr Pesutto declined to be interviewed for this story. Even with the emphatic court win — $315,000 in damages and $2.3 million in legal costs — Ms Deeming wants total victory. She recently said she had "no idea" why Mr Pesutto remained a Liberal party member. It's a view shared by loud voices outside the state party room, as well as some within. "He tried to silence a woman — don't we already have a problem with women voters?" another said. Mr Pesutto won Hawthorn by 1,500 votes at the 2022 election, returning to parliament after losing his once safe seat to Labor in 2018. The threat now comes from teal independents — Hawthorn sits within the federal seat of Kooyong and the area is one of the strongest for federal MP Monique Ryan. "We can't have a by-election, if we do, we'll get smashed, then we lose all momentum for 2026,'' a senior, despairing, Liberal said. At the heart of this problem is a culture where the Victorian Liberal Party, and many who represent it, are more concerned with internal victories than representing the people. Ms Deeming doesn't like the current direction of the party. She says it has "crashed into the rocks". She wants the party to be more conservative and supports recruiting people that share her views into the party to steer its direction. "We need to take back ownership of the party of the centre right,'' Ms Deeming told Club Grubbery. "We have to get really mercenary about [it], we have to get completely brutal." It's this sort of rhetoric that angers, and frightens, other Liberals — especially from the moderate side who have been railing against a "lurch for the right" for more than a decade. There have been well-publicised efforts and allegations of branch stacking, with operatives targeting Mormon groups and other conservative Christian groups for Liberal membership. In recent times, members of micro-conservative parties who have run for parliament have tried to join the Victorian Liberal Party. Political experts, strategists and indeed some within the Liberal Party know this sort of conservative politics does not wash well with Victorian voters. It is part of the reason Mr Pesutto tried to remove Ms Deeming from the party room. He wanted to assure Victorians his party would not get caught up in culture wars. In a recent interview with the ABC, Mr Pesutto didn't back down. "I was determined, and I remain so now, that I want the Liberal Party to be, and to be seen to be, a party that is broad-based, mainstream, inclusive and can appeal to all Victorians — no matter who you are, whether you own a home or you rent, regardless of how you identify,'' he said. Moira Deeming entered parliament after the 2022 state election following a controversial preselection. Ironically, she won support of moderates in the party as part of a factional war with the other local candidate, one not based on any sort of ideology. As a local councillor, Ms Deeming had pushed back against transgender people accessing women's toilets and playing women's sport, an issue she does not retreat from. When Scott Morrison was prime minister, his office intervened in Victoria to ensure that Ms Deeming was not preselected for a federal seat in 2022 because her views were too distracting from the federal campaign. "Women and girls are suffering in Victoria because this government cannot or will not define what a female is, and as a result every woman and every girl in Victoria has lost the right to enjoy female-only sports, female-only change rooms and countless other female-only activities,'' Ms Deeming said in her first speech to parliament, naming the issue as a priority. It angered several MPs who wanted the opposition to focus on toppling the Labor government. So when Ms Deeming helped organise the Let Women Speak rally on the steps of state parliament, Mr Pesutto pounced. Mr Pesutto had miscalculated how many people within the party shared Ms Deeming's concerns about trans rights. It has cost him dearly. Ms Deeming has found support far and wide within Liberal circles, including from high profile figures such as Peta Credlin, the former chief of staff to Prime Minister Tony Abbott turned Sky News host. Hilton Grugeon, a successful property developer from NSW, also came to her aid and bankrolled her legal case. It's the multi-million dollar loan from him that is causing so much pain for the Victorian Liberals. The saga has taken an incredible personal toll on both MPs. Ms Deeming has often spoken about the trauma it has caused her and her family. Her supporters reluctantly admit that Mr Pesutto and his backers have done well to paint Mr Pesutto as the victim in this sorry episode. But they remain unwavering in the direction the party must take. Since 1982, the Liberal Party has won just two out of 12 elections from opposition, and was returned only once in 1996 under Jeff Kennett. Neither Mr Kennett, who won in 1992, nor Ted Baillieu, who won in 2010, were social conservatives. "The federal election showed that, despite the Liberals enjoying the significant advantage of the unpopular Allan Labor government, Victorians are deeply sceptical of the party's brand in this state,'' Monash University politics professor Paul Strangio said. "The current saga will only reinforce the public's misgivings about the Liberals being a viable alternative governing party.'' Professor Strangio has been watching Victorian politics for decades, and holds grave fears for the Liberal party and what its dysfunction means for the state. Without robust competition for office, there is a risk of declining standards of government. "Victoria was the bedrock of the post-war Menzies-inspired Liberal Party. He insisted that the party's creed ought not to be in any way reactionary. Today that tradition has been effectively bankrupted," he said. "The party in Victoria has dying roots, is riven by philosophical and personality-based animosities, is short on talent and politically inept." Professor Strangio said there was a serious test for current Opposition Leader Brad Battin in this conflict — the new leader has remained tight-lipped on picking a side, provoking anger that he is not doing more to resolve the issue. "He looks like a bystander; he looks like he is washing his hands of a situation that effectively amounts to a proxy war over the direction of his party. It's not tenable for a leader to remain publicly mute in these circumstances,'' Professor Strangio said. "It raises the issue of what kind of premier he would make. How much authority would he actually wield over his party? Who is really in control?" Professor Strangio said the fascination with culture wars and the promotion of deeply socially conservative policies is a fundamental miscalculation by some Liberals. It puts them out of alignment with the sensibility of the majority of Victorians. Equally misguided is the idea that these types of concerns and attitudes resonate with outer suburban voters. "'These are demographically complex, socially and culturally-diverse communities. Aggressive conservatism doesn't speak to them, if anything, it alienates them," he said. Professor Strangio said with its record of chronic underperformance, there was a serious case for some form of federal intervention in the Victorian Liberal Party. But those in the party say an intervention is too difficult and that it would not solve the biggest issue — the personal hostility between state MPs. Finding a compromise is proving difficult. A GoFundMe for Mr Pesutto has raised $212,562 and has now been closed as he works to secure a loan to cover the costs. Other major donations are understood to have been committed privately. A plan has been cooked up for the Liberal party or one of its fundraising arms to provide a loan to him to cover the costs. At the time of writing, a proposal has not been put to the administrative committee who will decide. Mr Battin is a member of the panel along with elected volunteers from the membership. He's now understood to be supportive of some rescue package. Anything to avoid a messy by-election that could present questions for his leadership. There has been some reticence from the party to get involved. When Mr Pesutto first moved on Ms Deeming, the admin wing of the party was essentially told to butt out, as it was a matter for the party room. It's why there's some reluctance, and in some members, complete resistance to helping out Mr Pesutto. "He was pig-headed then, and now he wants our help,'' one senior figure said. The personal animosity is party-wide, not just confined to the MPs. Mr Battin did not create the mess but has to deal with it. It's distracting him from his work of trying to end 12 years in the political wilderness for the Victorian opposition. He wants it resolved and is quietly trying to do so, although publicly he is staying tight-lipped. Even if he can resolve this matter, the challenge remains to try and unify a fractured party room. If Mr Pesutto is bailed out by the party, it will only incense Ms Deeming and her group. But if Mr Pesutto is bankrupted, the party will be just as angry. And there is Ms Deeming's upper house preselection. Among the MPs and party figures canvassed for this story was a view that Ms Deeming would lose preselection for next year's election. If that occurs, you can bet the party infighting will ramp up again. And that will be even closer to polling day.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The world's gone topsy turvy as the GREENS become voice of reason (!) on super - as a rift festers between two of Australia's most powerful men: PVO
Who would have thought that the Greens could become the voice of reason in the current superannuation tax debate? But with negotiations between the Labor government and the opposition breaking down before they even started - courtesy of the intransigence of Treasurer Jim Chalmers - it is the Greens who have indicted a willingness to try and compromise to find common ground. Labor's starting position is that it hopes to tax super holdings above $3m at a 30 per cent rate, including unrealised gains. So earnings on balances over that sum will get taxed, as will the super assets themselves if they rise in value - even if you don't sell them. That is the taxing of paper profits - the clear worst design feature in what Labor is proposing to do. The Greens want the threshold lowered to $2m instead of $3m. But unlike Labor they are open to both indexing the rate at which the tax will be applied and discussing at least a partial removal of taxing unrealised gains. The Greens have expressed concerns at illiquid assets (think property) being taxed, because people aren't able to sell down their holdings to pay such a tax. If the Greens come to realise that you can't differentiate between liquid (think cash, shares) and illiquid assets when it comes to apply an unrealised gains tax, then we are in business. A reasonable compromise might be possible. That leaves the Greens still at the negotiating table but, at this stage at least, not the Labor party. Why? Because the Treasurer just doesn't get it. Chalmers simply can't get his non-economist head around the deficiencies of the policy as it currently stands. Even though the Greens can. What does that say about this Labor government? While some people won't like the idea that a 30 per cent tax on super earning can start to apply from a $2m threshold rather than a $3m one, that's hardly unreasonable in the world of most Australians. Especially if it is indexed, as Greens have expressed a willingness to embrace. Given the tax rates working-age income earners pay, 30 per cent on earnings on super assets above $2m isn't exactly a socialism panacea of a policy. With an ageing population it's part of the tough medicine the budget needs, especially if governments keep spending money they don't have rather than embarking on root and branch budget repairs. The opposition appears to be fundamentally opposed to lowering the threshold from $3m to $2m, but it's hard not to think that's an example of them being in the pocket of wealthy Australians who have for too long used their super balances as a means of legal tax avoidance. If Labor was more reasonable it would see opportunity in the Greens coming to the negotiation table. It might have little choice - despite Chalmers' refusal to accept a compromise - because without the support of the Greens or the opposition there is next to no chance of the super tax hikes passing the senate. Even after Albo's embrace of defecting Greens senator Dorinda Cox, who has been welcomed into the Labor fold despite the PM previously chastising Senator Fatima Payman for walking away from Labor after she was elected at the 2022 election. In Albo's myopic world view it's wrong for an elected Labor senator to do that - she should have resigned her seat according to the PM - but it's absolutely fine for a Green senator to do the same if it benefits the Labor Party. Yes it's contradictory and hypocritical, but don't let such inconsistencies prevent you from accepting Albo's explanation that it's reasonable and fine. The weird thing is Labor get little value from the defection. It doesn't chance the fact that the Greens control the senate balance of power. It doesn't make the passage of the super laws, without compromise, any easier. And there are a host of other downsides to accepting Cox into Labor's ranks, including her past anti-Labor rhetoric and accusations of bullying the PM says have been resolved but others aren't so certain about. With the Greens breaking from tradition and extending the hand of compromise to Labor, Albo now has a choice: stand by his stubborn treasurer who doesn't want to compromise the existing poor drafting of the super bills. Or overrule his subordinate and come to the table to negotiate an outcome that delivers more revenue without the design flaws currently being picked apart by experts. It could be a pivotal moment in the relationship between the PM and his Treasurer. It seems likely the opposition will use the new super taxes as a wedge political issue come the next election. If Labor sticks to its guns and somehow gets the laws past in their current format anyway, by using its election mandate to force others to acquiesce, the Opposition will have significant ammunition. If a genuine compromise with the Greens does happen, we've already seem senior opposition frontbenchers in the media attacking the 'Labor Greens Coalition', in the hope that doing so takes some shine off of the new government. This recent development has energised the PM to return to the negotiation table with the Coalition, defying the hopes and dreams of his treasurer. We now know Chalmers doesn't at all see eye-to-eye with Albo when it comes to compromising with the Coalition. Animosity between the pair will only rise if a deal gets done, brokered by a PM without the support of his minister responsible for super and tax. There is always tension between treasurers and prime ministers. It happened between Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, as well as between John Howard and Peter Costello. But when a PM and Treasurer put stakes in the ground the way Albo and Chalmers have, which way the ensuing discussions go will certainly leave one of the pair diminished. Let's wait to see who that is.
Bloomberg
13-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Republicans Could Reach SALT Compromise Wednesday, Johnson Says
House Republicans could land on a compromise on the state and local tax deduction on Wednesday, a deal that would represent a breakthrough in one of the thorniest policy debates in President Donald Trump's economic package. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday evening that a deal on SALT will 'likely be tomorrow.' He spoke after meeting with lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California who have threatened to sink the bill unless it calls for a significant expansion to the deduction.
Bloomberg
06-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
SALT Republicans Have to Accept ‘Unhappy' Deal, GOP Chair Warns
The chairman of the House tax committee warned lawmakers from high-tax states demanding relief from a $10,000 cap on the state and local deduction that they will have to settle for an 'unhappy' compromise. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith said Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview that he will strike a balance between those who want no limit on the SALT deduction and those who want no write-off at all.
