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Greg Mirabella has failed in his preselection bid to return to the Senate after lingering resentments from his time as Liberal Party president splintered the conservative vote.
Mirabella was beaten by Kyle Hoppitt, a 41-year-old small business owner and former Baptist preacher, during a ballot of grassroots members and party officials in Melbourne’s northern suburbs on Sunday.
Liberal Victorian Senate candidate Kyle Hoppitt.Credit: Facebook
The vote, which was held at the Moonee Valley Racecourse and ran for more than three hours, had shaped up as a de facto contest between state Opposition Leader John Pesutto and federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. But in the end, neither of the leaders’ candidates emerged successful.
Mirabella was Dutton’s pick to replace David Van as No.3 on the Liberal Party’s Victorian Senate ticket at the next election, due by 2025, while Pesutto had endorsed the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s first female president, Karen Sobels. The businesswoman did not make the final round, which led to Hoppitt receiving about 187 votes to Mirabella’s 173, according to two Liberal sources with knowledge of the vote.
Greg Mirabella announced he would resign as Victorian Liberal Party president in August.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Van was elected to the Senate in 2019, when Victoria elected three Liberal senators, but now sits on the crossbench following allegations of inappropriate behaviour – including towards independent senator Lidia Thorpe and former Liberal senator Amanda Stoker. His term is due to expire in 2025. The crossbencher says the allegations against him are “simply not true”.
Snake catcher and former independent candidate for the state seat of Melton, Jarrod Bingham, was the fourth contender during Sunday’s preselection contest.
The result means Hoppitt has a shot at joining former Wentworth MP Dave Sharma in the Senate. Sharma, who lost to teal independent Allegra Spender at last year’s federal election, was on Sunday selected by NSW Liberals to replace outgoing senator Marise Payne. Unlike Hoppitt, he will immediately take his seat in the Senate.
Ahead of the vote in Melbourne, a sitting Liberal MP told The Age that Mirabella was the frontrunner for the third spot on the Victorian Senate ticket, but that everyone except Bingham “was in with a chance”. The MP spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Another well-connected Liberal, from the party’s conservative wing, said many in his grouping were still furious with Mirabella for not standing up to the party’s administrative committee when it expelled conservative powerbroker Dr Ivan Stratov.
“Greg runs with the foxes and hunts with the hounds,” the source said.
Hoppitt’s candidate brochure stated that he has been married for 21 years, run a small business for 18, completed an economics degree after-hours and also served in the Army Reserve.
“I’ve had a lifetime of community involvement through sports, scouts, the performing arts, community events and forums, school council and my local church – not to mention 12 years in the Victorian Liberal Party,” the brochure stated.
It’s not the first time Mirabella has fought for Senate preselection. In November 2021, the husband of former federal Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella was chosen to fill the casual vacancy caused by the resignation of former senator Mitch Fifield.
Mirabella lost his seat at last year’s federal election when the United Australian Party’s Ralph Babet won Victoria’s sixth and final Senate spot.
Senator James Paterson, from the party’s National Right, will contest the next election as the party’s No.1 pick in Victoria. Senator Jane Hume, a moderate, has the second spot after she and Paterson secured a peace deal.
ABC election analyst Antony Green said while both were expected to be shoe-ins, the third spot, while winnable, was uncertain territory.
“To get three senators up, you need to have about 35 per cent of the vote,” he said. “So pretty clearly, Labor will get two, the Liberals will get two and the Greens will get one. That leaves the final seat.
“If the Libs are substantially short of Labor, they’ll struggle to win that last spot.”
The last time the Liberals elected three senators in Victoria, in 2019, the party received about 35.9 per cent of Senate votes compared to Labor’s 31 per cent. However, the November 12 edition of the Resolve Political Monitor had Labor’s federal primary at 37 per cent in Victoria and the Coalition’s at just 25 per cent.
Because of this, Green said Labor or a minor party – such as the Libertarians, formerly known as the Liberal Democrats – could be the ones to watch in two years’ time.
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