Tim Smith defies Liberal leaders call to quit Parliament after crash

Embattled Liberal MP Tim Smith is refusing to quit State Parliament, defying Opposition Leader Matthew Guy who declared the member for Kew should not recontest next year’s election.

Mr Smith, who crashed his five-week-old Jaguar vehicle into a parked car before ploughing into the fence outside an eight-year-old child’s bedroom while driving more than 2½ times over the legal alcohol limit, has told several senior Liberal sources he believed he could weather the political storm and remain in Parliament.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy addresses the media.Credit:Simon Schluter

He told colleagues he had the support of senior federal Liberals and was calling party branch members in Kew seeking their support for preselection.

The former state shadow attorney-general has been bunkering down at his parent’s holiday house in Blairgowrie since the crash in Hawthorn on Saturday night. Two Liberal sources confirmed he was dining with a high-profile QC on the night of the crash.

On Tuesday night Mr Smith continued to defy Mr Guy in favour of federal MPs. If it continues, his resistance could ignite a factional dispute in the Liberal Party that could force colleagues to put forward a motion to remove him from the Liberal caucus and force him to sit on the backbench as an independent.

Senior Liberal sources also said the party’s powerful administrative committee may reject Mr Smith’s application for preselection if he were to recontest.

Mr Guy stared down internal pressure from Liberal heavyweights to protect Mr Smith and on Tuesday afternoon told journalists he had driven to the Mornington Peninsula to tell the Kew MP about his “unequivocal” position that he should not contest the 2022 election.

“I made it very clear to Tim that he wouldn’t find his way onto the frontbench of any parliamentary Liberal Party that I lead. And I made it clear that I didn’t want him to nominate at the next election, and that I didn’t believe he should nominate for the seat of Kew,” Mr Guy said.

“Tim has and will reflect on my advice to him. He will then make a statement in his own time, I hope sooner rather than later.”

Upper house MP Matthew Bach, who was appointed shadow attorney-general on Sunday, has been touted as the most likely candidate to win preselection for the seat of Kew.

Tim Smith is under pressure to quit Parliament over the crash. Credit:

Liberal sources have said Dr Bach’s move to the lower house would pave the way for the Liberal Party to preselect a female candidate to replace him in the Legislative Council for the Eastern Metropolitan Region.

Dr Bach was a senior adviser to former Liberal minister Mary Wooldridge, who was challenged by Mr Smith in a bloody preselection battle for Kew in 2014.

Mr Guy, who vowed in September to promote more women into the Liberal ranks, did not name his preferred candidate but said “there’s always places to start” when asked if a woman should be preselected in the safe seat.

The Opposition Leader said he expected Mr Smith to remain in the Victorian Parliament for the next 12 months, avoiding a $3 million byelection.

“I think enough damage has been done,” he said.

The controversial Kew MP â€" who Mr Guy on Monday said could have one day become premier â€" could front the media as early as Wednesday to announce his decision. The Opposition Leader privately told colleagues he believed Mr Smith would make the “right decision” and resign, but it could take “a few days”.

“Tim can have those conversations, I expect him to come and talk to all of you [journalists]. That’s the right thing to do, you are representing the people of Victoria, providing information to them,” Mr Guy said.

“And he understands that. He understands that entirely. I hope that will be sooner rather than later, and I hope that’ll be [Wednesday].”

Mr Guy said he did not have any indication as to what Mr Smith may decide to do, but Liberal sources told The Age the 38-year-old was thinking about nominating for the preselection â€" which will close on November 12 â€" after being told by federal MPs to “fight it out”.

Mr Smith was “upbeat” and “confident” in his conversations with colleagues, telling them, “the feds are backing me”, according to Liberal sources.

“He is delusional,” one Liberal frontbencher said.

Another Liberal said: “If the federal Liberals want Tim Smith, then the state Liberals definitely don’t want him. Tim just hasn’t grown out of his Scotch College dormitory.”

The feud over Mr Smith’s political future has caused tensions between Mr Guy and federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a close ally of the Kew MP, threatening to spark further instability for Mr Guy’s leadership.

The crash scene.

Mr Smith is a friend of the state Opposition Leader and was instrumental in his return to the leadership. He moved the spill motion against Michael O’Brien in the Liberal Party room meeting two months ago.

Several colleagues have encouraged the former shadow attorney-general to leave Australia after the election and head to Britain, where he studied and briefly interned with several politicians, including Sir David Amess, who was recently killed in a terror attack.

Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick said Mr Guy made the right decision in calling for Mr Smith’s resignation from Parliament. “This was a tough call and Matthew was showing leadership in doing that,” Mr Southwick said.

“Matthew was showing no favours here … and that should take a lot of credit. We haven’t seen that level of consistency in this Parliament for a long time from other leaders and I think Matthew has done that.”

Former premier Ted Baillieu called on Mr Smith to consider whether he is too much of a liability to contest next year’s election.

“He’s got a pretty tough choice to make. It’s been a fairly spectacular implosion for somebody who, let’s say, has been a controversial figure on the Coalition side of politics,” Mr Baillieu said on ABC’s Mornings with Virginia Trioli.

“But he has imploded. Fortunately, hasn’t hurt anybody, but I think his reputation is very much shattered. He now has to reflect on his own position. The question he has to ask himself is whether he’s now a liability to the Coalition team, whether he’s a liability to the parliamentary party, whether he’s a liability to the Liberal Party.”

Jeff Kennett, a close ally of Mr Smith, declined to comment, but senior sources have confirmed he has been encouraging Mr Smith to resign. Former Liberal premier Denis Napthine said Mr Guy’s decision had cemented his position as a strong leader and suggested Mr Smith would be “well-advised to follow Matthew’s advice”.

Senior Andrews government minister Martin Pakula said Mr Smith was not in a position to complain about his treatment, having previously acted as an attack dog for the opposition and frequently called for resignations.

“Sometimes it’s better to be a bit judicious with your comments about other people,” Mr Pakula said. “If you’re going to start setting those kinds of standards for others, you don’t really have much cause for complaint when other people to try to impose those standards on you.”

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