Jess Wilson unveils “winning team” as polling puts new Liberal leader ahead of Allan
Victoria’s new Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has named her first Shadow Cabinet, keeping tight control of economic policy while bringing key Liberal and National figures into a “renewed” front bench she says is ready to govern within a year.
Wilson will retain the powerful shadow treasurer role, signalling that budget repair and state debt will sit at the heart of the Coalition’s election pitch. State debt is forecast to approach $194 billion by 2028–29, and Wilson has framed herself as the person to “get the books under control” and free up funding for police, health and cost-of-living relief.
“I’m the best person to take this forward,” she said at a housing estate in Cranbourne, linking budget discipline to the Coalition’s core promises.
“If we don’t fix the finances in this state … we cannot fix the crime crisis, we can’t invest in the 2000 vacant Victoria Police positions, we can’t ensure Victorians get access to quality healthcare, and we cannot provide the tax relief that is going to be so critically important to ensuring people can buy their own homes.”
Battin back in, Pesutto still out
Former Opposition Leader Brad Battin, who was ousted by Wilson in a party-room coup just two weeks ago, has been kept in the fold and handed the police and corrections portfolio. The ex-police officer replaces David Southwick, who moves to a new brief covering planning, housing and building.
“Brad has so much to offer and as a former police officer I absolutely know that it feels right putting him into that role,” Wilson said, describing the new line-up as a “winning team”.
By contrast, former leader John Pesutto remains on the backbench. Despite backing from Wilson in the past, including during his defamation battle with expelled MP Moira Deeming, he has not been returned to the frontbench after a year outside the leadership group.
Party figures had privately cautioned against bringing Pesutto back while a Supreme Court case over a $1.55 million loan from the party is still before the courts. Wilson said simply that she believed the team she has selected gave the Coalition its best chance at the 2026 election.
“The team I have put forward is the team we are going to take to the next election,” she said, adding that Pesutto would continue to work “on the ground in Hawthorn” to sell the Opposition’s message.
The reshuffle also sees conservative MP Richard Riordan sent to the backbench.
Promotions and portfolio shifts
The new frontbench balances different factions and brings back some long-serving figures:
- David Southwick leaves police and corrections to take on planning, housing and building, a key area for the Liberals’ home-ownership agenda.
- Renee Heath, a prominent conservative, is one of the biggest winners, promoted to shadow minister for youth justice, crime prevention and victim support, along with a new bay protection portfolio. Heath was among the small group of MPs who told Battin he had lost support on the eve of the leadership spill.
- Brad Rowswell, a close ally of Wilson who was sidelined under Battin, returns to the frontbench as shadow education minister.
- James Newbury stays on as shadow attorney-general and picks up the additional role of shadow special minister of state.
- Matthew Guy, another former leader, shifts from major projects to public transport and ports and freight, keeping him in a prominent economic and infrastructure role.
- Nicole Werner, a rising star often seen in the media, loses the youth justice brief but is elevated to shadow minister for home ownership and housing affordability, while retaining youth and children – all central to Wilson’s focus on cost-of-living and housing pressures.
- Georgie Crozier remains in the crucial health portfolio, drawing on her background as a nurse.
- Evan Mulholland, deputy Liberal leader in the upper house, moves from a temporary stint in education to transport infrastructure, and keeps multicultural and multifaith affairs.
- David Davis stays on the frontbench with energy and resources, despite being replaced as upper house leader following the spill.
The Nationals, led by Danny O’Brien, retain their own key portfolios inside the Coalition agreement, with O’Brien insisting regional Victoria will be “front and centre” in any alternative government.
“Our team will provide the genuine alternative that Victorians are crying out for,” he said.
“Regional Victoria has been ignored for too long by this Labor Government … we will ensure we truly govern for the whole state.”
Wilson stressed that, unlike previous leadership contests, she had not traded frontbench spots for votes.
“It’s about putting the best people forward for the job,” Southwick added, saying it “made absolute sense” for Battin to take over justice responsibilities given his policing background.
Allan rallies the base and warns of cuts
While the Opposition was promoting its new line-up in the south-east, Labor staged its own rally in central Melbourne, marking one year until the 2026 state election.
Premier Jacinta Allan addressed party members and union supporters at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation’s Victorian branch, using the official opening of the Metro Tunnel to attack the Liberals’ record and scepticism about major projects.
“A few moments ago I stepped off a Victorian-made train that the Liberals said would never exist,” she told the crowd.
“It went through a tunnel that they called a hoax. And stopped at a platform in a station they swore would divide our city like the Berlin Wall.”
Allan urged Labor members to spend the next year “on the phones, at the doors, in the street” reminding voters what she said was at stake: “Our hospitals, our schools, our security, our future.”
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll took direct aim at Wilson, accusing her of planning deep cuts.
“We know she’s someone who has already vowed to cut $11.1 billion out of the Victorian budget,” he said, arguing that would mean reductions to health and education that “Victorian families rely on”.
Wilson has rejected that characterisation, arguing that spending restraint is needed to stabilise debt and free up funding for frontline services.
Poll shows Wilson ahead as preferred premier
The reshuffle comes as new polling suggests Wilson has opened up a clear lead over Allan as preferred premier.
A Freshwater Strategy survey of 1,220 Victorians, reported by the Herald Sun, shows 47 per cent of voters now favour Wilson for premier, compared to 31 per cent for Allan – a 16-point gap. That compares with an 11-point lead former Liberal leader Brad Battin held before he was rolled.
The research indicates voters see Wilson as offering a fresh style of leadership, better public communication and a stronger appeal to undecided voters. Around 22 per cent of non-Coalition voters said they were more likely to consider the Liberals under her leadership, including about a quarter of Greens supporters and one in five Labor voters.
The same poll paints a grim picture for the Premier’s standing, with Allan’s net favourability falling to around minus 32 and a majority of respondents saying the government is performing poorly.
More than half of those surveyed – 56 per cent – said Victoria was headed in the wrong direction, while 58 per cent thought the government was doing a bad job. Only around a third believed Labor deserved another term; a majority said it was time to “give Jess Wilson and the Liberals a chance”.
On primary votes, the Coalition sits on about 37 per cent and Labor on 30 per cent, leaving the contest roughly tied on a two-party-preferred basis. The Coalition would need to win 16 extra seats, without losing any it currently holds, to form government in 2026.
Freshwater’s head of research, Jordan Meyers, said Wilson had inherited “a political landscape most opposition leaders could dream of” – a weak economy, voter frustration about crime and a Premier with deteriorating personal ratings – but warned that turning that into victory would depend on how effectively she and her new team can “score some goals” over the next year.
Wilson, for her part, insists the refreshed Shadow Cabinet gives the Liberals and Nationals their best chance in a decade.
“With 12 months until the next election, my team is fully focused on the task ahead,” she said.
“Our priorities are clear: get our finances under control, end the crime crisis, deliver a world-class health system and give every Victorian the best opportunity to own their own home.”
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