Libs dump candidate over risk party affairs could be exposed in legal brawl

A risk that internal Liberal Party affairs would be aired during a messy court dispute led the party to dump its candidate for the marginal seat of Croydon less than seven weeks from election day.

The Victorian Liberal Party’s state executive agreed on Monday night to disendorse lawyer Grant Hutchinson for the outer eastern Melbourne seat, which is currently held by retiring MP David Hodgett on a 1.4 per cent margin.

It follows the party’s move in July to disendorse upper house MP Moira Deeming, whose bruising defamation case against her own party leader led to extensive disclosure of sensitive party correspondence.

The party executive said it had selected Toby Wooldridge – the son of former Howard government health minister Michael Wooldridge and nephew of former state Liberal MP Mary Wooldridge – to contest the seat of Croydon instead.

Liberal chiefs refused to explain the move to dump its candidate so close to the November 28 poll. But party figures said there had been growing frustration with Hutchinson’s candidacy and concern over an ongoing legal dispute with the former partners of his law firm.

The falling out with his partners at Hutchinson Legal is currently before the Supreme Court, with a directions hearing scheduled on November 16.

The Guardian reported in December last year that his former partners were accusing him of bullying and using the firm’s resources to further his political career.

Three Liberal sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations, said the state executive had realised the party could be dragged into the court case.

One source said a discovery obligation was believed to require Hutchinson to share Liberal Party correspondence with his former legal partners, which risked having sensitive party material made public.

“We cannot have a candidate who’s constantly legally compelled to provide party materials to his very aggrieved former partners,” the source said.

Asked about the move on Tuesday, Liberal leader Jess Wilson would only say that said the party had become aware of more information regarding Hutchinson’s legal dispute.

“In terms of Mr Hutchinson, further details have come to light about his ongoing … personal litigation. It’s no longer appropriate for him to continue as a candidate.”

Wilson said she would not comment further “out of respect for Mr Hutchinson and the ongoing court process”.

Other party sources, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail internal matters, said that it was ultimately a positive outcome to swap Hutchinson for Wooldridge, who is an urban planning and demographics consultant and a relatively younger candidate for the Liberals.

Wooldridge had declined to run for preselection originally, despite the urging of many in the party, because he did not think he would win a ballot of local members, one Liberal MP said.

“Toby comes in as a clean skin, he is widely well regarded and very capable. He will definitely be a minister,” the MP said.

A second MP said the party had despaired at Hutchinson’s candidacy.

“He is old and he was never going to be a minister and Croydon is one of the few seats we hold through the cycle. It is a Liberal seat. You don’t put a seat-warmer in it,” they said.

Hutchinson had cancelled his own campaign launch on Friday night because of a lack of interest from supporters, one of the sources said. “He was just not doing the work,” they said.

The Coalition need a net gain of 16 seats to form a majority government in the 88-seat parliament after November.

It is currently polling ahead of Labor, with a primary vote of 28 per cent versus 25 per cent, according to this masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor survey. But it is unclear whether the Coalition could form government without the help of a minor party or One Nation, which is currently polling at 23 per cent.

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