The Victorian Liberal Party dumped its Croydon candidate on Monday night, less than seven weeks before the November 28 state election. Grant Hutchinson is out; Toby Wooldridge is in. The party's explanation, though, has left some of its own people scratching their heads.
Opposition leader Jess Wilson said the party disendorsed Hutchinson after new information surfaced about a civil case he’s involved in. Further details about a lawsuit Hutchinson brought against his own law firm had come to the party’s attention, she said. “It’s no longer appropriate for him to be a candidate,” Wilson said. Asked whether she was confident in the party’s vetting process, she answered with one word: “Yes.” She added: “As I said ... new information has come to light.”
A Case Already on the Public Record
Here’s where the explanation gets complicated. The lawsuit, which prompted a counterclaim, has been public knowledge since last year, and some media outlets have reported on it. One Liberal figure said the party worried the case could drag on. But another source said people familiar with the court case were bewildered by the decision: it was well known in political circles, and there’d been no recent developments.
That gap matters. If the facts were available last year, voters and party members are entitled to ask what exactly changed, and whether the vetting behind the original endorsement was thorough in the first place. Hutchinson, a senior lawyer and a member of the party’s religious right, won endorsement last year. The report said some Liberal members found that astonishing. He didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Replacement
Wooldridge will now carry the Liberal banner in Croydon. He’s the son of former federal Liberal minister Michael Wooldridge and nephew of former MP Mary Wooldridge. Sources suspected he’d been the preferred candidate all along. A third source called the change a “captain’s pick,” suggesting a decision from the top rather than one made through the ordinary preselection process.
Wilson sits on the state executive that voted to disendorse Hutchinson on Monday night. That puts her squarely inside the decision she’s now defending. Campaign material that had appeared on Hutchinson’s Instagram account has since disappeared.
A Pattern of Endorsement Trouble
Croydon isn’t the only seat where the party has wrestled with candidate selection. The Liberals also removed current MP Moira Deeming as a candidate in a separate endorsement dispute and declined to endorse Dinesh Gourisetty after his preselection. Three candidate problems in a campaign this short is a lot of churn.
The stakes in Croydon are real. Longstanding member David Hodgett is retiring after 20 years in parliament. The Liberal Party holds the marginal Melbourne eastern seat by 1.4 per cent, though it would expect to extend its lead at the election.
Why This Matters:
Stable, well-vetted candidates are the foundation of a credible alternative government, and voters use competence on small things to judge big ones. A late swap in a seat held by just 1.4 per cent, explained by information reportedly public for a year, invites questions about internal process just as the opposition is asking Victorians to trust it with the state’s finances and institutions. Wilson says the party’s vetting is sound. Her critics inside the party see a captain’s pick. With under seven weeks left, the party needs to settle the story fast and let its new candidate get on with the campaign. Croydon voters will decide whether the explanation holds up.