The Liberal Party is in opposition in Canberra and all states bar Tasmania and NSW, where the Perrottet government is teetering.

So, who better to call in for a pep talk than Tony Abbott, who is perhaps the most brutally effective opposition leader in recent history.

Tony Abbott in parliament in 2012.Credit:Andrew Meares

The former PM and member for Warringah, who tore down Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, will address party faithful at the Victorian division’s dinner on the eve of its state council later this month.

The soiree, titled “Politics From Opposition”, offers “hors d’oeuvres throughout the evening” for $88.

A thousand bucks will get you an “intimate pre-function gathering” with Abbott and Senator James Paterson, with money going to the campaign for the Victorian election in November.

Credit:John Shakespeare

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, who completed his rebranding on Monday when his Facebook account name changed to “Matt”, will surely be taking notes.

Event organisers listed on the pamphlet were cloak-and-dagger about the details. “No comment”, “I can’t tell you that”, and “great talking to you” were some phrases used when CBD called.

They seemingly forgot the invite included a QR code to a booking page replete with date and address.

Accustomed to the trappings of national government, organisers initially referred to Paterson as chair of parliament’s powerful intelligence and security committee.

An updated invitation updated his position to “former chair” and swapped out an old picture of the baby-faced senator with a new pic of the bearded China hawk.

From Kyiv to Melbourne

Speaking of Victorian Liberals, it has been difficult to ignore the recent selection of three conservative state upper house candidates.

Renee Heath, who has previously said the City Builders Church she belongs to had helped people with “sexual brokeness”, former Family First member Ann-Marie Hermans, and trans rights opponent Moira Deeming have caused angst among moderate Liberals.

Not helping this concern is the re-emergence of prominent party member activist Ivan Stratov.

Ivan Stratov said he had moved to Ukraine for a religious mission.Credit:Youtube

The Mormon and former Family First candidate quit the party’s administrative committee in 2020, telling colleagues he was “relocating to Kyiv to preside over one of our church missions, covering western Ukraine and Moldova”.

Stratov is organising an event to be held next week at the campaign office of the Liberal candidate for Mornington, Chris Crewther.

Titled “A change in direction, a new horizon”, the speakers include Heath and Hermans. Among the invitees for the event: Marcus Bastiaan.

Readers will recall Bastiaan quit the party in 2020 following reports in The Age about the activities of the previously dominant religious right faction.

A handful of sources told CBD that Bastiaan, who did not respond to CBD’s inquiries, has been active in the party recently, particularly relating to the upper house campaigns.

“He never really left,” said one party figure.

How sophisticated are investors?

Some concepts do better than others once you start pulling at their loose threads and one terrific example is Australia’s “sophisticated investor” test.

The corporate graveyard is brimming with the losses of people who “passed” this test when in reality there was nothing sophisticated about them or their behaviour.

Rachael Neumann, co-founder of Flying Fox Ventures, took aim at the test at The Age’s innovation summit late last week noting that its focus on a continuous income stream or asset accumulation favoured (surprise, surprise) men, who don’t have to take time out of the workforce to have children.

This “wholly insufficient” definition disproportionately penalised women, denying them opportunities to invest in start-ups or early-stage businesses, she told the conference during a panel with Blackbird Ventures co-founder Niki Scevak and Leigh Jasper, chairman of LaunchVic and richlister to boot, courtesy of his company Aconex.

Scevak, whose company manages billions of dollars in investments, jumped right in on this point declaring the “sophisticated” tag a terrible misapplication of the term.

“I think the word sophisticated is the most silly word. We should change it to ‘have money’. I can tell you having met a lot of people that have money they are not sophisticated,” he said gaining a good laugh from the room.

Former premier John Brumby, minister Jaala Pulford and top bureaucrat Simon Phemister also spoke.

MPs vent at Labor retreat

Tensions remain high in Victorian Labor after a spate of preselection knifings late last year.

The federal takeover that has done away with party democracy is still frustrating some MPs, while others are still smarting from Premier Daniel Andrews’ cunning manoeuvre to install Jacinta Allan as his deputy in June.

Labor types are good at parking grievances during election season to focus on winning. But at a caucus retreat a fortnight ago, ears pricked up when a pair of MPs addressed colleagues.

Yan Yean MP Danielle Green, who quit amid November’s factional coup, warned of the risks associated with losing almost one-in-five Labor MPs, some of whom have personal brands that improve Labor’s vote, at the same election.

Meanwhile, Broadmeadows MP Frank McGuire, Eddie’s brother who has railed against Labor’s factional hierarchy since he was de-selected as a candidate, argued for a greater proportion of investment in health services to be directed to disadvantaged areas such as the one he represents.

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