Peter Walsh (Victorian politician)

Peter Lindsay Walsh (born 9 January 1954) is an Australian politician. He has been a National Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2002, representing the electorate of Swan Hill until 2014 and Murray Plains thereafter. Walsh was Minister for Agriculture and Food Security and Minister for Water in the Baillieu and Napthine Coalition governments. He has been state leader of the Nationals since 3 December 2014.

The Honourable Peter Walsh MP
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Victoria
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 December 2014
Leader	Matthew Guy Michael O'Brien
Preceded by	James Merlino
Shadow Minister for Agriculture
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 December 2014
Preceded by	Jacinta Allan
Shadow Minister for Water
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 December 2014
Preceded by	Martin Foley
Minister for Agriculture
In office 2 December 2010 – 4 December 2014
Premier	Ted Baillieu Denis Napthine
Preceded by	Joe Helper
Succeeded by	Jaala Pulford
Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Murray Plains
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 November 2014
Preceded by	New seat
Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Swan Hill
In office 30 November 2002 – 29 November 2014
Preceded by	Barry Steggall
Succeeded by	Seat abolished
Personal details
Born	9 January 1954 Boort, Victoria, Australia
Political party	National Party
Spouse(s)	Rosanne Kava

Walsh was born and raised at Boort in Northern Victoria, attending Fernihurst Primary School and Boort Secondary College. He was the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation from 1998 until his election to parliament in 2002. Before entering politics, he operated an irrigated horticulture and cropping enterprise, producing tomatoes, cereals, oilseeds and legumes. He was also a director of SPC Limited, a member of the state Food Industry Advisory Council, and a board member of the National Farmers Federation.

Walsh was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to the environment. He is a keen Australian rules football fan, having served as a Boort player, committee man and selector. He was President of the Boort Football Club between 1988 and 1990. Walsh was also a member of the local Apex Club from 1982 to 1992, again including a term as President.

Walsh was elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 2002 election, easily retaining the seat for the National Party after the retirement of long-serving MP Barry Steggall. He was re-elected at the 2006 and 2010 elections, receiving 79.3% of the two-party preferred vote in 2010.

Party leadership

In the wake of the National Party losing government after just one term at the 2014 election, outgoing deputy premier Peter Ryan retired from the party leadership, declaring that it was time for generational change.[1] Eyebrows were raised amongst political commentators when the hexagenerian Walsh emerged as the sole unopposed candidate for the leadership to succeed another hexagenerian in Ryan. Walsh sought to neutralise any awkward perception by installing his former staffer, neophyte first-term MP Steph Ryan as deputy leader, who promptly repudiated the party's traditionally conservative views and instead attempted to reposition the party as one appealing to progressive voters with supportive attitudes towards abortion and euthanasia.[2]

Walsh's first term as leader would prove to be tumultuous as multiple scandals confronted him and the party. The newly-elected Labor Government pursued Walsh over his mismanagement and interference with the Office of Living Victoria (OLV) during the four years that Walsh was Water Minister, following findings by the State Ombudsman released prior to the 2014 election that Walsh had repeatedly meddled with staffing decisions, operational management, overseen breaches of government procurement rules, and multiple undeclared conflicts of interest that saw several lucrative government contracts awarded to former National Party consultants and advisers without going to public tender.[3] Abolishing the OLV was one of Premier Daniel Andrews' first actions upon taking office,[4] followed by the appointment of former auditor-general Des Pearson to investigate the OLV. Pearson identified rampant management failures typified by a lack of measurable objectives, lack of proper records and due diligence or record-keeping, over 90% of funded projects failing to achieve completion by deadline, $3.6 million in taxpayer funds having gone missing, and the funding of a smartphone app which never materialised.[5][6] Labor Water Minister Lisa Neville subsequently announced that she was seeking to recover a number of questionable grants made during Walsh's tenure as minister, including a $500,000 grant to colourful property spriiker Henry Kaye for the construction of an "architectural masterpiece" in Melbourne's western suburbs but which remained a disused rubbish dump despite the large government grant.[7]

In stark contrast to the party's reputation for stability during his predecessor Peter Ryan's leadership of the party, under Walsh's leadership numerous party scandals hit the headlines. In August 2017, former Cabinet minister Russell Northe resigned his party membership, further diminishing the party's already shrunken ranks, upon revelations that Northe had incurred over $750,000 in debts to constitutents, former staff members, businessmen and colleagues, including a $30,000 debt to Walsh, as a result of Northe's gambling addiction.[8][9][10] Victoria Police were subsequently called to investigate irregularities in the party's bank accounts connected to the Northe saga. Tim McCurdy was forced to relinquish his shadow ministry in March 2018 after Victoria Police announced that they had charged McCurdy with ten counts of fraud.[11][12] To make matters worse, the party was embroiled in further controversy when it emerged that Walsh had taken the unprecedented step of overturning the party's democratic pre-selection result for the Western Victoria Region, snubbing the pre-selection winner, party vice-president Andrew Black, in favour of Ararat Rural City councillor Jo Armstrong.[13][14]

Plagued by scandal, multiple police investigations affecting party MPs, and a grassroots rebellion over meddling in a local pre-selection, Walsh entered the 2018 election campaign on the backfoot. A sense of disarray became apparent when, for unclear reasons, Walsh was forced to announce a Coalition policy to grant a lucrative government contract to Bendigo Bank faraway from Bendigo in Traralgon.[15] The 2018 election was a humiliating defeat for the Coalition, where Daniel Andrews achieved re-election in a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party that saw the Nationals reduced to a meagre 7 seats, the worst election result in the party's history. The party was reduced to just 1 seat in the upper house after Luke O'Sullivan lost his safe seat in Northern Victoria Region, whilst Peter Crisp lost Mildura to an independent and the party placed a distant third and fourth place in its formerly safe seats of Shepparton and Morwell respectively.[16][17] The election result left the party with barely half the 11 seats required to qualify for official party status and the accompanying parliamentary staff and allowances that go with it.

Despite the poor election result, Walsh was re-elected unopposed as leader alongside Steph Ryan as deputy leader and pledged to work harder to represent regional Victoria.[18][19][20]

References

1. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-01/peter-ryan-stands-down-as-leader-of-victorian-national-party/5930578
2. https://nz.news.yahoo.com/vic-nats-aiming-for-centrist-position-25684609.html
3. Baker, Richard (18 September 2014). "Leaked letters reveal Water Minister Peter Walsh's grip on abolished agency". The Age. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
4. https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/labor-abolishes-office-of-living-victoria/
5. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/vic-living-office-couldn-t-find-3-6m
6. https://www.smh.com.au/national/dan-andrews-wants-water-money-back-from-henry-kayelinked-project-20150902-gjdoit.html
7. https://www.smh.com.au/national/dan-andrews-wants-water-money-back-from-henry-kayelinked-project-20150902-gjdoit.html
8. "Nationals MP to quit party over gambling, depression". ABC News. 28 August 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
9. White, Alex (19 February 2018). "Nationals Victorian MP hit up leader for cash". Herald Sun. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
10. White, Alex (29 November 2019). "MP Russell Northe 'has nothing' after running up $750K in debts". Herald Sun. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
11. "Victorian Opposition frontbencher Tim McCurdy charged with fraud offences". ABC News. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
12. "Nationals MP facing fraud trial just weeks before Victorian election". 4 October 2018.
13. Martinrich, Rex (30 June 2018). "Young Ballarat Nationals candidate Andrew Black overlooked for party's top ticket spot". The Courier. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
14. Sinnott, Alex (20 July 2018). "Former Young Nationals president calls for Western Victoria preselection rethink". Weekly Times. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
15. Simmons, Anne (22 November 2018). "Coalition banks on Bendigo for decentralisation push". Latrobe Valley Express. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
16. https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/Results/State2018/SheppartonDistrict.html
17. https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/Results/State2018/MorwellDistrict.html
18. https://www.cobramcourier.com.au/@local-news/2018/12/20/368316/leadership-unchanged
19. https://www.sheppnews.com.au/@rochester-news/2018/12/12/357814/nats-stick-with-leaders
20. https://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/5779602/vic-poll-forces-nats-to-work-doubly-hard/

External links

• Official Website
• Parliamentary voting record of Peter Walsh at Victorian Parliament Tracker