Peter Walsh (Victorian politician)

Peter Lindsay Walsh (born 9 January 1954) is an Australian politician. He has been a National Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since 2002, representing the electorate of Swan Hill until 2014 and Murray Plains thereafter. Walsh was Minister for Agriculture and Food Security and Minister for Water in the Baillieu and Napthine Coalition governments. He has been state leader of the Nationals since 3 December 2014.

Walsh was born and raised at Boort in Northern Victoria, attending Fernihurst Primary School and Boort Secondary College. He was the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation from 1998 until his election to parliament in 2002. Before entering politics, he operated an irrigated horticulture and cropping enterprise, producing tomatoes, cereals, oilseeds and legumes. He was also a director of SPC Limited, a member of the state Food Industry Advisory Council, and a board member of the National Farmers Federation.

Walsh was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001 for "service to sustainable natural resources and as president of the Victorian Farmers Federation services to the environment." He is a keen Australian rules football fan, having served as a Boort player, committee man and selector. He was President of the Boort Football Club between 1988 and 1990. Walsh was also a member of the local Apex Club from 1982 to 1992, again including a term as President.

Walsh was elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 2002 election, easily retaining the seat for the National Party after the retirement of long-serving MP Barry Steggall. He was re-elected at the 2006 and 2010 elections, receiving 79.3% of the two-party preferred vote in 2010.

In 2014, defamation proceedings were commenced against Walsh by Environment East Gippsland. Walsh entered into a confidential settlement with the environmental group, the terms of which required him to post a public apology on his official website.

In the wake of the Coalition losing government at the 2014 election, outgoing Deputy Premier Peter Ryan retired from the party leadership, declaring that it was time for change. Walsh emerged as the sole candidate for the leadership to succeed Ryan, with first-term MP Steph Ryan elected deputy leader. Under Walsh and Ryan the National Party has taken a more centrist stance.

The newly-elected Labor Government pursued Walsh over alleged mismanagement and interference with the Office of Living Victoria (OLV) during the four years that Walsh was Water Minister, following findings by the State Ombudsman released prior to the 2014 election that Walsh had repeatedly meddled with staffing decisions, operational management, overseen breaches of government procurement rules, and multiple undeclared conflicts of interest that saw several lucrative government contracts awarded to former National Party consultants and advisers without going to public tender. Abolishing the OLV was one of Premier Daniel Andrews' first actions upon taking office, followed by the appointment of former auditor-general Des Pearson to investigate the OLV. Pearson identified rampant management failures typified by a lack of measurable objectives, lack of proper records and due diligence or record-keeping, over 90% of funded projects failing to achieve completion by deadline, $3.6 million in taxpayer funds having gone missing, and the funding of a smartphone app which never materialised. Labor Water Minister Lisa Neville subsequently announced that she was seeking to recover a number of questionable grants made during Walsh's tenure as minister.

The 2018 election was a landslide victory for the Australian Labor Party under Daniel Andrews that saw the Nationals reduced to 7 seats. The party was reduced to just 1 seat in the upper house after Luke O'Sullivan the Northern Victoria Region, whilst Peter Crisp lost Mildura to an independent and the party placed third and fourth place in place in its formerly safe seats of Shepparton and Morwell, respectively.

Walsh was re-elected unopposed as leader alongside Steph Ryan as deputy leader and pledged to work harder to represent regional Victoria.

In February 2022, Walsh, along with Matthew Guy, David Davis, Gary Blackwood and Melina Bath, were fined $100 each for breaching face mask rules, after the Coalition MPs were photographed maskless while attending an event in Parliament House.

Walsh became a Freemason in 2015, joining the Swan Hill Lodge. The affiliation embroiled Walsh in controversy in March 2024 when the media outed Walsh alongside former Liberal leader Matthew Guy as Freemasons, with neither declaring their memberships on their parliamentary register of interests.