Victoria’s Liberals saved John Pesutto from bankruptcy. But can they save themselves from all-out war?

A bitter rift between former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto and MP Moira Deeming, who successfully sued him for defamation, has left the party bitterly divided. Photograph: Con Chronis/AAP

As his party room imploded last year, plagued by infighting and a looming defamation trial, John Pesutto placed a blank sheet of butcher’s paper in front of his colleagues. In the dying days of his tenure as opposition leader, Pesutto asked MPs what should have been simple questions to answer: What are our values? What do we stand for?

His attempt to unify a deeply divided party failed spectacularly.