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April 9, 2026 — 5:00am
The best speech during the Liberal Party convention held to select upper house candidates for Melbourne’s western suburbs – an episode variously known as Dinesh’s last supper, Moira’s revenge or, for fans of the BBC comedy, The Thick of It, an omnishambles – was delivered by a candidate who barely rated a mention.
Trung Luu, throughout the long years of intra-Liberal warfare that preceded the omnishambles, has represented with humility and quiet industry a political party which, to a boatperson welcomed here by the Fraser government after escaping communist Vietnam, always stood for freedom and opportunity.
In a concise, five-minute pitch to preselectors, he sketched the outline of a rich Australian story that traversed learning a new language, completing an engineering degree, serving with Victoria Police and the Australian Defence Force, raising a family in Sunshine North, and most recently, working to give the Liberal Party a meaningful presence west of the Maribyrnong River.
In a veiled reference to the party’s troubles – a destructive feud which took Moira Deeming from backbench obscurity to culture war célèbre and the former leader who maligned her, John Pesutto, to the brink of bankruptcy and political oblivion – Trung summarised how he’d spent his time in parliament representing the Western Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council since 2022.
“My focus has been on the issues people raise at their kitchen tables and in living room — the cost of living, safety and security, hospital waiting times, congestion, local schools,” he told the convention. “Not personal crusades and not followers from interstate or overseas.”
He concluded with some free advice for anyone interested in winning the next state election. “As a former police officer and a soldier, I learnt something that always applies in life – no mission will succeed without unity of purpose.”
It was a fine speech entirely wasted on an audience of party flacks and schemers. Of 68 delegates gathered inside the Liberal Party’s Collins Street headquarters, a mere three voted for him. The rest were split between Deeming and her chief rival, Dinesh Gourisetty, a businessman who, after beating Deeming in their preselection ballot, was revealed with Machiavellian timing to have provided a character reference for a child sex offender.
The best candidate – in this column’s view – if measured by political authenticity, integrity, party loyalty and electoral work ethic, was never in the race.
Trung eventually slotted into the party’s No.2 spot on the Western Metro ticket behind Deeming but, with One Nation likely to take a big bite out of the Liberal Party’s modest support in that part of Melbourne, he faces a struggle to hold his seat in parliament.
If ever the Victorian Liberal Party could do with unity of purpose it is now, with One Nation rising, the teals mobilising, the great Labor campaign machine shifting gears to prop up a tired, 12-year-old government, and many voters, frankly, sick of the lot of them.
Party president Phil Davis might not have engendered much unity earlier this week when he granted this masthead a rare interview to deliver a blunt appraisal of party matters, but Australian electoral history says he is bang on in predicting that if the Liberals pursue One Nation to the political fringe, they are on a fool’s errand.
The South Australian election result should have made this clear. If the Victorian Liberals want evidence closer to home, they should consider the results of a survey conducted by uComms in Opposition Leader Jess Wilson’s own seat of Kew.
According to the survey of 914 respondents conducted in March, Wilson’s primary vote of 44 per cent recorded at the last state election has collapsed to just 36 per cent, despite a whopping boost to her public profile since taking over the party’s leadership in November last year.
The difference is explained by 13 per cent of voters who say they are planning to vote for One Nation, a party yet to select a candidate for the seat. Some of this vote will flow back to Wilson via preferences but not all of it. To borrow a phrase from Davis’ interview, this is how One Nation eats the Liberals’ lunch.
Some caveats are required. Single-seat polling is difficult to get right, and this one was commissioned for Sophie Torney, a teal candidate who lost to Wilson at the 2022 state election and needs a swing of about 4 per cent in November to claim the seat. Torney’s primary vote of 17 per cent is down on what it was four years ago but ahead of Labor, One Nation and the Greens.
If these numbers were replicated at the November election, it is more likely than not that Wilson would still scrape back in. The more worrying figure in the poll for the Liberals is that only 42 per cent of respondents believe the Liberals are ready to govern. Given the recent events of The Omnishambles, this is a generous assessment.
If the Liberal Party is to convince more people to trust them with the keys to No.1 Treasury Place, they need to be clear about what they stand for and, when it comes to the more malignant aspects of One Nation, what they won’t cop.
The burghers of Kew and constituencies in Liberal-held, marginal seats like Prahran, Hawthorn and Caulfield should be naturally inclined to Wilson, a smart, second-generation Liberal who, during her short time as leader, has given centrist voters reason to take another look at her party.
They will also punish her if they perceive she is walking both sides of the street when it comes to One Nation, a political movement steeped in xenophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry.
More prominent Liberals should follow Davis’ lead in publicly rejecting Jeff Kennett’s proposal for a “coalition for Victoria” which would open the door to One Nation MPs serving in a Liberal/National government.
If the Liberals see a future in partnership with Pauline Hanson, they bear no relationship to the party where Trung found a political home.
Chip Le Grand is state political editor.
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