The Victorian Liberal Party is facing accusations of double standards after moving to force Dinesh Gourisetty off its Western Metropolitan upper house ticket over a court character reference he provided, while two of the party’s most prominent former prime ministers publicly stood by George Pell when he was convicted and jailed.
The backlash has added another layer of chaos to a party already tearing itself apart over Moira Deeming, factional warfare and candidate vetting.
Gourisetty had only just defeated Deeming for the top spot on the Liberal ticket when it emerged he had provided a 2024 character reference for Kashyap Patel, who later pleaded guilty to grooming and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and to using a carriage service to send indecent communications.
Victorian opposition leader Jess Wilson said Gourisetty was “not welcome” on her team, while party president Philip Davis said his withdrawal had been accepted, even as Gourisetty initially denied stepping aside.
That swift political repudiation is now being measured against the party’s treatment of former leaders John Howard and Tony Abbott during the Pell case. After Pell’s 2018 convictions became public, Howard provided a character reference describing him as a man of “exemplary character”, while Abbott publicly called the verdict “devastating” and confirmed he had personally called Pell.
Abbott was later filmed leaving the prison where Pell was being held, saying only that he had been “visiting a friend”.
The comparison, however, is not exact, and that matters. Pell’s convictions were unanimously quashed by the High Court in 2020, with acquittals entered, meaning he no longer stood convicted in law. Patel’s case is different: he pleaded guilty and was sentenced.
That legal difference is significant, but it does not erase the political question now hanging over the Victorian Liberals:
Why is one reference treated as instantly disqualifying, while support for Pell from senior Liberal figures never appeared to cost them standing inside the broader Liberal family?
For critics inside and outside the party, the answer is uncomfortable. They argue the Gourisetty affair is not only about judgment but about power. Deeming’s preselection loss was already seen as a major factional win for moderates despite support for her from Abbott and other conservatives. When the Patel reference surfaced, the same party that has long embraced Abbott and Howard as elder statesmen moved with remarkable speed to isolate Gourisetty.
That has sharpened suspicion that principles are being applied unevenly. If the standard is that writing in support of someone accused or convicted of child sexual abuse is politically toxic, critics say that standard was not enforced equally when Pell’s defenders included former prime ministers.
The episode has also reopened the wounds of the Deeming conflict rather than closing them. What began as a preselection upset quickly turned into another Liberal catastrophe, with contradictory accounts about whether Gourisetty had withdrawn and renewed fury over who knew what, and when. In that environment, the allegation of double standards is politically potent because it speaks to something bigger than one candidate: a party that appears to enforce moral lines selectively, depending on who is involved and which faction stands to benefit.
For the Victorian Liberals, the immediate problem is not just the fate of one ticket spot in Western Metropolitan. It is the growing perception that judgment inside the party is inconsistent, factional and reactive. Whether Gourisetty ultimately stays out or forces a further internal showdown, the damage is already done.
The party wanted to move beyond the Deeming war. Instead, it has walked straight into a fresh argument over standards, loyalty and hypocrisy.
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