Benita Kolovos

3 days ago | theguardian.com | Henry Belot |Benita Kolovos

Several Victorian Liberals have accused the party of “hypocrisy” after it paid lawyers to represent its administrative wing in an unfair dismissal claim, while so far declining to save former party leader John Pesutto from bankruptcy. On Monday, lawyers for Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Pesutto after he failed to meet a deadline to pay her $2.3m in legal costs.

3 days ago | theguardian.com | Patrick Commins |Anne Davies |Benita Kolovos

Jim Chalmers says making cigarettes cheaper will not solve the booming trade in illegal tobacco, dismissing the call by the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, to slash taxes on smoking. Minns joined Victoria’s state government in blaming the high tobacco excise for a spike in organised crime that has led to arson attacks on businesses and stretched police resources.

5 days ago | theguardian.com | Benita Kolovos |Henry Belot

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart helped the Liberal party raise almost $400,000 at an exclusive dinner on the eve of the federal election campaign, the event’s organiser has revealed, but fallout from the function has left the party embroiled in a public dispute. Donors paid up to $25,000 to hear Rinehart speak at the 26 March dinner in Melbourne, which has been described as “the party’s most successful event in more than five years”.

5 days ago | theguardian.com | Benita Kolovos |Henry Belot

Lawyers for Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming have initiated bankruptcy proceedings against former state opposition leader John Pesutto after he failed to meet a deadline to pay her $2.3m in legal costs. The upper house MP’s lawyers on Monday lodged a bankruptcy notice on Monday after Pesutto failed to pay the costs ordered by the federal court in May. The court in December found he repeatedly defamed Deeming by falsely implying she sympathised with neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

6 days ago | theguardian.com | Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s new treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, is confident cost-of-living pressures will ease by the next election – and that voters will be less concerned about the state’s soaring debt once they see the completed projects it has helped fund. In an exclusive interview with Guardian Australia after handing down her first budget in May, Symes also signalled openness to reforming stamp duty.