Are you okay, Victoria?

Those of us watching the Liberal Party drama from slightly saner states glance at Victorian headlines with the same vague awareness that there’s a giant spider on the ceiling.

Are we ready to deal with it? Not yet. But we know it’s going to be a problem eventually, and no one is getting any sleep until it’s sorted.

For many conservatives living under occupation in the Red State of Victoria, 38-year-old Sam Groth was seen as a flicker of hope for the future.

He was a bloke sourced from outside the tired factional machine who joined politics for all the right reasons and, astonishingly, of his own free will.

He wasn’t a staffer or generational political nepo baby.

He’s not a trade unionist or a lobbyist.

This made Sam Groth an MP ordinary conservatives could finally relate to and have a little bit of faith that he was digging through the muck of state politics to rescue the party.

Formerly a sports star, the Member for Nepean rose rapidly to the position of Deputy Leader, protected from factional attacks by his earlier fame. He was even tipped for the leadership before Jess Wilson was installed in the role, quite to the bewilderment of ordinary party members.

(Imagine selecting the only prominent MP who supported the Voice to Parliament and thinks Net Zero is the bees’ knees… Yeah. The Victorian Liberals are an ideological mess and they’re proud of it.)

Yesterday, while the rumbles of war kept the press busy, Sam Groth issued a statement to his electorate informing them of his intention to call it a day.

The full text is below, but essentially, he has complained of unnecessary party nastiness.

Statement from Sam Groth MP

After many conversations with my wife and with a great deal of personal thought, I have informed the Leader of the Opposition that I have decided that I cannot continue in Parliament beyond the 2026 election.

The public pressure placed on my family in recent months has been significant and realising that some of it came from within my own party has been difficult to ignore. Coming to that realisation has forced some very personal reflection.

I entered public life to serve my community, to represent the Mornington Peninsula, and to stand up for what I believe is in the best interests of Victorians. I have always tried to approach this job with honesty, hard work, and a clear focus on the people who put their trust in me.

But when you find yourself having to fight against your own team, it becomes impossible to put those interests first. That is not the standard I came into public life to accept, and it is not the kind of politics Victorians deserve.

This has been an extremely challenging period for my family. We took on this role for the right reasons, to contribute to our community and try to make a positive difference. That purpose has never changed, but the environment around it has.

I will not be making any further comment. Over summer, I will take time with my family to consider what comes next and the opportunities ahead.

Disillusionment is common with those who enter politics for noble reasons.

When good people sit there picking knives out of their back, the obvious question arises: Does this party want to be saved?

Groth’s despair at this sort of behaviour is part of the reason Jess Wilson should have pretended to be more upset by his departure. His demise is a failure of her leadership and yet her performance was closer to a triple Gender Studies Major judging the quality of a soy latte.

Why is Groth being forced to defend himself against Liberal Party opponents? Is Ms Wilson not the leader? Has she already lost control of the room?

Groth is taking the high road by refusing to comment further on the details, but it would serve the Victorian people better if he stuck a few pointy things into the party machine and began the process of bloodletting. There is gunk clogging up the veins of the Liberal Party, but no one seems game to twist the knife, except perhaps the exceptional Moria Deeming, but her hand was forced by a truly ludicrous chapter of political history.

Here’s the problem.

Labor voters are red until they die and care little about the misdeeds of their MPs. Party loyalty, even in the face of abusive governance, has never bothered the left. In contrast, Liberal voters used to pride themselves on being more discerning. There is an expectation on the whole Liberal Party that its members conduct themselves in a way that reflects the values of conservatism. If people like Groth are being nudged out, it sends a message to Victorians that the party is a long way from the leadership.

The divide between the old party elite and the grass roots defenders of the political faith has widened so far that voters are asking what religion the Liberal broad-church worships.

It is all well and good for Jess Wilson to crown herself ‘Jacinta Allan’s worst nightmare’, but without any details, what’s there to be scared of?

So far, we’re getting meaningless statements about drawing ‘lines in the sand’ and being the ‘new generation’ which is ‘match fit to fight Labor’ (a bit of an awkward declaration in light of Groth’s departure.

No one is surprised to see the Liberal leadership mistake ‘being the right age’ for ‘being in touch’. I am the same gender and generation as Jess Wilson, and I have an easier time relating to Maduro who has little control over the next phase of his life.

As it stands, the only way the limping Liberal Party is making it into the leadership is if Jacinta Allan accidentally locks herself out of the job by leaving the keys in an over-priced machete bin.

This is not like other political battles. The people of Australia have been fundamentally changed by mass migration policy used to buffer the budget and enrich developers. There are consequences.

Walk down the streets of Melbourne. The city looks nothing like it used to. It is not just a different era, it’s a different country with an unknown set of values, political goals, and allegiances.

Nobody knows if the new arrivals care about individual liberty and small government. If they come from socialist regimes or theocracies, they might be cheering for massive state handouts, the expansion of government, and blasphemy laws.

No amount of ‘clean energy’ championing or serious discussions about the budget can fix that.

Think about it. If you’re a voter swayed by Labor’s ‘free stuff’ campaign funded by ‘eating the rich’, are you going to vote for an economic conservative who wants the belt tightened?

Honestly, Australian politics is such a mess and we may already be beyond the point of no return.