The Scoresby stacking as the Victorian Liberal Party prepares its preselection has been unprecedented – an unprecedented disaster. It’s managed to knock the institutionalised corruption and abuse of process in the local Labor Party out of the news.

Energetic Scoresby MP Kim Wells’s performances efforts for Statelineand Saturday’s Agehave been seen and noted. They mightn’t have done much to win over undecided pre-selectors – but they were audacious attempts at spin. And, as psychologists might say, projection.

“Young Turk” Michael Gidley has been accused of stacking Scoresby. One local Liberal says the local Liberal president “has no need to stack the branch as he already had the numbers… evidenced by the fact that he has been running the show without any problems since 2003”.

If Gidley is not to blame for the membership increases, who is? His supporters claim Wells is the culprit here – and in full doth protest too much mode. Liberal leader Robert Doyle is supporting Wells – but can’t be happy that the Scoresby scuffle knocked the resignation of Labor MLC Dianne Hadden from the party and her spit at the factional strife in the Victorian ALP down to item number two on Stateline.