Peter Walsh (Victorian politician)

In the wake of the National Party losing government after just one term at the 2014 election, outgoing deputy premier Peter Ryan retired from the party leadership, declaring that it was time for generational change.[1] Eyebrows were raised amongst political commentators when the hexagenerian Walsh emerged as the sole unopposed candidate for the leadership to succeed another hexagenerian in Ryan. Walsh sought to neutralise any awkward perception by installing his former staffer, neophyte first-term MP Steph Ryan as deputy leader, who promptly repudiated the party's traditionally conservative views and instead attempted to reposition the party as one appealing to progressive voters with supportive attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia.[2]

Walsh's first term as leader would prove to be tumultuous as multiple scandals confronted him and the party. The newly-elected Labor Government pursued Walsh over his mismanagement and interference with the Office of Living Victoria (OLV) during the four years that Walsh was Water Minister, following findings by the State Ombudsman released prior to the 2014 election that Walsh had repeatedly meddled with staffing decisions, operational management, overseen breaches of government procurement rules, and multiple undeclared conflicts of interest that saw several lucrative government contracts awarded to former National Party consultants and advisers without going to public tender.[3] Abolishing the OLV was one of Premier Daniel Andrews' first actions upon taking office,[4] followed by the appointment of former auditor-general Des Pearson to investigate the OLV. Pearson identified rampant management failures typified by a lack of measurable objectives, lack of proper records and due diligence or record-keeping, over 90% of funded projects failing to achieve completion by deadline, $3.6 million in taxpayer funds having gone missing, and the funding of a smartphone app which never materialised.[5][6] Labor Water Minister Lisa Neville subsequently announced that she was seeking to recover a number of questionable grants made during Walsh's tenure as minister, including a $500,000 grant to colourful property spriiker Henry Kaye for the construction of an "architectural masterpiece" in Melbourne's western suburbs but which remained a disused rubbish dump despite the large government grant.[7]

In stark contrast to the party's reputation for stability during his predecessor Peter Ryan's leadership of the party, under Walsh's leadership numerous party scandals hit the headlines. In August 2017, former Cabinet minister Russell Northe resigned his party membership, further diminishing the party's already shrunken ranks, upon revelations that Northe had incurred over $750,000 in debts to constitutents, former staff members, businessmen and colleagues, including a $30,000 debt to Walsh, as a result of Northe's gambling addiction.[8][9][10] Victoria Police were subsequently called to investigate irregularities in the party's bank accounts connected to the Northe saga. Tim McCurdy was forced to relinquish his shadow ministry in March 2018 after Victoria Police announced that they had charged McCurdy with ten counts of fraud.[11][12] To make matters worse, the party was embroiled in further controversy when it emerged that Walsh had taken the unprecedented step of overturning the party's democratic pre-selection result for the Western Victoria Region, snubbing the pre-selection winner, party vice-president Andrew Black, in favour of Ararat Rural City councillor Jo Armstrong.[13][14]

Plagued by scandal, multiple police investigations affecting party MPs, and a grassroots rebellion over meddling in a local pre-selection, Walsh entered the 2018 election campaign on the backfoot. A sense of disarray became apparent when, for unclear reasons, Walsh was forced to announce a Coalition policy to grant a lucrative government contract to Bendigo Bank faraway from Bendigo in Traralgon.[15] The 2018 election was a humiliating defeat for the Coalition, where Daniel Andrews achieved re-election in a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party that saw the Nationals reduced to a meagre 7 seats, the worst election result in the party's history. The party was reduced to just 1 seat in the upper house after Luke O'Sullivan lost his safe seat in Northern Victoria Region, whilst Peter Crisp lost Mildura to an independent and the party placed a distant third and fourth place in its formerly safe seats of Shepparton and Morwell respectively.[16][17] The election result left the party with barely half the 11 seats required to qualify for official party status and the accompanying parliamentary staff and allowances that go with it.

Despite the poor election result, Walsh was re-elected unopposed as leader alongside Steph Ryan as deputy leader and pledged to work harder to represent regional Victoria.[18][19][20]

• Official Website
• Parliamentary voting record of Peter Walsh at Victorian Parliament Tracker