McArthur tipped to run in Ramsay’s seat
CORANGAMITE shire councillor Bev McArthur is all but a certainty to be picked to replace drink-driving MP Simon Ramsay at the November state election, Liberal Party insiders say.
Sources say the influential Victorian Liberals administrative committee member — married to former Corangamite MP Stewart McArthur — will get the nod to run on the ticket for the Upper House seat of Western Victoria.
“It’s over and it will be Bev McArthur,” one source told the Geelong Advertiser. “You can take that to the bank.”
Nominations for the Liberals’ Legislative Council positions opened last week, with the administrative committee having seized the reins of the preselection process for some Upper House spots, including the Western Victoria seat.
Cr McArthur has not responded to requests for comment.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has signalled the administrative committee will discuss Mr Ramsay’s replacement in coming weeks.
Cr McArthur’s preselection for the Legislative Council would help solve what Liberals state president Michael Kroger has labelled an “embarrassing” lack of Liberal women in parliament.
“We have failed to get an appropriate number of women in, failed badly,” he said earlier this year.
“People have written pages and pages about how we need more women. I’m sick of good intentions, I want some action.” Mr Ramsay last month announced he would not recontest his seat at the November 24 state election, after being caught drinkdriving at almost four times the legal limit, blowing 0.191.
At 11.30pm on Saturday, July 21, police nabbed a 63- year-old Barwon Heads man, understood to be Mr Ramsay, whose car was swerving on to the wrong side of the road on Carr St, Barwon Heads.
The MP told the Addy he felt “like an idiot” and the consequences of his “inexcusable” actions would haunt him forever.