Attacks on veteran MP force Victorian Liberal party to reissue campaign material

The Victorian Liberal Party has had to republish and censor statements from candidates in a hotly contested preselection after a challenger to senior MP Bev McArthur accused her of being “unempathetic, unprofessional, irresponsible”.

The party is in the midst of selecting its upper house candidates for the November election and a swag of sitting MPs are being challenged, including Ms McArthur, who is upper house leader, as well as Moira Deeming and Ann-Marie Hermans.

As part of the preselection process party delegates are provided candidate profiles and statements.

Ms McArthur holds the top spot on the Liberal’s ticket in the Western Victoria region — all but guaranteeing a spot in parliament — but she is facing multiple challenges, including from former Geelong mayor Trent Sullivan.

# Former candidate slams MPs ‘unprofessional’ behaviour

Former federal candidate for Corio Manish Patel has also put up his hand and issued a blistering statement attacking Ms McArthur’s behaviour.

“Most of the people in Western Region do not like Bec [sic] McArthur because of her arrogance and her attitude towards general Australians,” his statement, distributed by party officials, said.

“Preselecting Bec [sic] McArthur again will give strong message to Victorians and Australians that the Liberal party approves her unempathetic — unprofessional — irresponsible behaviour and that we do not have compassion and empathy for people of indigenous background and any other Australians.”

Heard similar statements from people locally but they also vote liberal because they always have