Wipeout beckons for Liberals after Aston byelection and the problem is not just Peter Dutton

‘Out of Liberal disaster, there is also an opportunity. Better to get a shock to the system now while there is a year or two still in this term of parliament for the party to correct course.’ Photograph: Julian Smith/AAP

Before the Liberal MP Alan Tudge’s resignation setting up the byelection contest in Aston, the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, described the party’s vote in Victoria as at a “low-water mark”.

Now we know there is further to fall, and the Liberals’ brand under Dutton is underwater.