“I acted without delay because I was concerned about what would otherwise happen to our standing. I still feel strongly that the party’s name and reputation had to be protected,” John Pesutto said.
“The moments we do have together are really precious,” Betty toldThe couple, who John said get on “like a house on fire”, met through friends in the early 1990s. They married in 2001 after John popped the question on their fourth anniversary, following a romantic dinner at a bayside restaurant.“He actually went into my jewellery box to find my ring size, but chose one of the rings I wear on my middle finger so it turned out to be quite large,” Betty laughs.
Luigino – an orphan – emigrated to Australia in 1961 from his home in Calabria in southern Italy, searching for better opportunities than those in postwar Italy. Antonietta, who didn’t speak English, followed alone two years later on the Galileo Galilei, which docked at Port Melbourne in 1963. The pair married days later.Luigino had several jobs but spent most of his working life as an electrician at the local power station.
Although his parents rarely discussed politics, Pesutto believes it was their values – “a sense of opportunity, honest work and an enterprising ethic” – that drew him to join the Liberal Party 30 years ago. He doesn’t subscribe to the narrative that Victoria is too progressive for a Coalition government, insisting the party must attract support from across the state.
Key to his reform agenda is attracting new members, broadening policy discussions beyond members, professionalising the party machine and running in every election – including council contests – across the state.“We live in a world where people have different lives, families take different shapes, people have greater agency over their identity and who they want to be, so we need to understand and accept that that diversity doesn’t have to be inconsistent with our values,” he said.
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