State council delegates have the power to help decide who is elected to the party’s influential administrative wing. But Liberal officials said last night that Mr Macmillan ended up proxying his vote to another branch member on the day. Head office was unable to comment on whether Mr Macmillan continues to help fundraise for the party, or perform other roles.

With six months until November’s poll, the government has seized on the news, with Deputy Premier James Merlino saying it was further proof that “you can’t trust Matthew Guy”.

Some Liberals are perplexed at Mr Macmillan’s ongoing presence, questioning why the person at the centre of such a damaging controversy remained active within Liberal ranks.

“It’s not exactly a good look,” said one senior source.

The Lobstergate scandal was a major political headache for Mr Guy, who had spent an otherwise scandal-free term making law-and-order the central theme of his pitch to win government.

But his campaign was derailed last year when it emerged that he had attended a secret dinner with Mr Madafferi, a wealthy market gardener and family man who is believed by police to be the head of Melbourne’s mafia.

Mr Madafferi has never been charged with any offence and denies any wrongdoing.

Recordings of a phone conversation obtained by The Age captured Mr Macmillan seeking to solicit donations from Mr Madafferi and his relatives, and caught him plotting to split the promised donations into smaller amounts to avoid disclosing the source of the funds to authorities.

Mr Macmillan says on the recording: "You can't associate Matthew with money and I would have to be the intermediary. But I'm talking about a swag of money that they're prepared to give for them [Mr Guy's campaign]."

"We're probably talking hundreds [of thousands of dollars in donations] ... they can't stand the bloody Labor Party."

Mr Macmillan was forced to resign as secretary of the party’s Dunkley Federal Electorate Conference and the vice chair of the Hastings Federal Electorate Conference once news of the lobster dinner broke.

But his ongoing presence continues to rile some, at a time when factional tensions are high over the rise of conservative forces in the Victorian branch.

The latest rumblings come as a Liberal Party member faces expulsion after making an anti-Mormon post on social media that lamented the growing influence of the religious group within the party.

But some argue that expulsion is an extreme step, with one source saying: “We haven’t even expelled Barrie Macmillan and his actions seriously damaged the leader.”

Mr Macmillan could not be contacted last night. Mr Guy's spokesman and Liberal Party headquarters declined to comment.