Former education minister Alan Tudge is poised to quit politics, less than a year after just hanging on to his seat of Aston.
The MP for the outer-eastern Melbourne seat of Aston has endured several political scandals in recent years and his departure will not come as a major surprise to colleagues.
Liberal MP Alan Tudge is poised to quit politics.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
He had not been sitting in parliament this week for the resumption of the political year, but is expected to announce his retirement after question time on Thursday.
Tudge refused to comment when approached by this masthead.
He was largely absent from the campaign trail at the May election after a term in which he stood aside from cabinet after his former lover and staffer Rachelle Miller accused him of being emotionally abusive and at one point physically abusive. He denied the claims and two inquiries made no findings against him.
He also faced difficult questioning at the royal commission into robo-debt last week.
The move means a byelection will be held in Aston, which takes in the Melbourne suburbs of Rowville and Knox. Tudge held the seat with a 10 per cent two-party preferred margin before the 2022 election, before an 11.6 per cent drop in first preference support whittled down the margin to 2.8 per cent.
More to come.
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