John Pesutto was dropped as Victorian Liberal leader on Friday. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
John Pesutto was on live TV on an ABC panel when he was told he'd most likely lost his seat at the 2018 Victorian state election.
His response was surprising, but telling — there was no anger, nor rancour, no blame-shifting, just a dignified acceptance of his political fate.
"You get a short time on the stage in politics," he said, before congratulating the man who defeated him, Labor's John Kennedy, and describing him as "a very decent man".
Pesutto was a study of grace in defeat, and that grabbed attention. Perhaps he was the leader the Victorian Liberal Party needed in the wake of consecutive election defeats at the hands of Daniel Andrews?
John Pesutto was on television during the ABC's 2018 election coverage when he first learned his seat was in doubt. (ABC News)
Even though it took more than a week after the election for the result in Pesutto's seat to be confirmed, the election night prediction was proven correct and Pesutto lost his seat.
Other comments from Pesutto that night, as it became clear his party had lost another election, are ironic in hindsight.
"What I've been trying to emphasise during the evening is it's not about us," he told the ABC's election night panel.
"If we continue to make it about us that's when you run into problems like this."
Six years later, Pesutto has at least succeeded in making it "not about us", unfortunately he's made it about him — and he has certainly run into problems as a result.
The court victory for Moira Deeming in her defamation case came as a hammer blow to Pesutto's leadership and ambitions of becoming the next Liberal premier of Victoria.
On Friday, that dream ended as his colleagues turfed him from the leadership, installing Shadow Police Minister Brad Battin as his replacement.
Humble beginnings in regional Victoria
Pesutto grew up in Traralgon as the son of Italian migrants who moved to Australia in the 1960s.
He worked as a lawyer before gravitating to politics, running for pre-selection for the Liberal Party in the 2010 and 2013 federal elections, but losing out to Josh Frydenberg and Michael Sukkar.
He was an adviser to Liberal premiers Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine before winning pre-selection for Baillieu's seat of Hawthorn in 2014 after the former Liberal leader announced his retirement from politics.
Pesutto held the seat for the Liberals at the election despite an 8 per cent swing to Labor.
John Pesutto has indicated he will continue to serve as Hawthorn MP. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
The new MP was immediately thrust into a senior position in the party as shadow attorney-general, as new leader Matthew Guy tried new usher in a new era for the Victorian Liberals after losing government.
Pesutto spent the term pressing the government on bail laws and freedom of information, but it was election night in 2018 that stands as the most significant moment in his first period in office.
After being ousted from parliament, Pesutto took up an honorary position at the University of Melbourne, established his own consultancy firm, and stayed active in the media, including regular spots on ABC Radio Melbourne.
John Pesutto regularly spoke on ABC Radio Melbourne before winning back the seat of Hawthorn in 2022. (ABC: Julian Virgona)
In 2021, as he prepared to try and win back his seat at the 2022 election, Pesutto told the Herald Sun that losing his seat on live TV was "not something I'd wish on anyone."
He told the paper it was a message from his brother that reaffirmed his commitment to politics after one of the toughest days of his professional life.
"He told me 'that was the night that you became the politician that you should be'," he told the paper after winning pre-selection for his old seat.
John Pesutto casts his vote on the day of the 2022 Victorian election. (ABC News: Danny Morgan)
A 10 per cent swing against Labor helped Pesutto claim victory in 2022, and put him firmly in the frame to replace Matthew Guy as Victorian Liberal leader.
In the end, he won the leadership ballot by just one vote over Brad Battin, saying he was "very humbled" to have been chosen as leader.
Pesutto's leadership hits a snag
If Pesutto's plan was to put the focus very firmly on the Labor government's faults, he didn't get off to a great start.
Less than four months after he became leader, his authority was already facing its first significant challenge thanks to the controversy surrounding newly elected Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
Deeming's attendance at the Let Women Speak anti-trans-rights rally which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis was strongly condemned by Pesutto, who described her position in the party as "untenable".
An internal party stoush between Moira Deeming and John Pesutto spiralled into a legal battle at the Federal Court. (Facebook)
The party settled on a nine-month suspension for Deeming, who strongly objected to what she said was Pesutto's false characterisation of her as a Nazi sympathiser, and demanded a public apology from the Liberal leader. Deeming also maintains she does not hold "anti-trans" views.
The issue simmered for weeks before the Liberal party room voted to expel Deeming from the party.
The vote exposed divisions within the party, with senior Liberal figures accusing those not falling in behind Pesutto of wreaking havoc within the party to serve personal agendas.
Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton even threatened to intervene, urging the Victorian Liberal Party to "get this mess sorted out as soon as possible".
But legal action by Deeming, who sued Pesutto for defamation over his comments following the rally, ensured the issue was not going to go away quietly.
A federal court judge found in Deeming's favour, ruling Pesutto had defamed her by suggesting she empathised or was associated with neo-Nazis.
He awarded her $315,000 in damages, but real damage was also done to Pesutto's political ambitions.
He struck down a vote on December 20 to readmit Deeming to the parliamentary party, a move which divided the Liberal caucus.
Just two days later, Pesutto had backflipped, issuing a statement apologising to Deeming and announcing intentions to readmit her to the party.
But the act of contrition came too late to save the embattled Pesutto, who faced a leadership spill this morning.