Victorian Liberal MPs will vote again on whether to readmit Moira Deeming to the party room after an extraordinary backflip by state leader John Pesutto.
In a statement on Sunday, Pesutto announced that he had called a special Liberal party room meeting for 15 January, to vote on a motion moved by him to readmit the ousted MP who successfully sued him for defamation in the federal court.
It is a major reversal for Pesutto, who on Friday voted against Deeming’s readmission to the party room and said the poll – which resulted in a 14-14 tie that Pesutto then used his casting vote to defeat – “concludes the matter”.
On Sunday, Pesutto said that it had “become clear that there is now a definite absolute majority of my colleagues who want this issue resolved with [Deeming’s] readmission”.
“I again apologise to Mrs Deeming as we all work together to ensure the Liberal party succeeds in winning government in November 2026,” his statement said.
Deeming was expelled from the party in May 2023, after a rally she attended was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
A federal court judge last week found Pesutto defamed Deeming by falsely implying in comments he made after the rally that she knowingly associated and sympathised with neo-Nazis, and ordered him to pay her $300,000 in damages.
Deeming declined to comment but confirmed to the Guardian that she was not directly informed of Pesutto’s plan to hold a second vote on her readmission, and that she learned of the matter through screenshots of the statement sent to her by others and from media coverage of it.
Pesutto said that the January vote would mean the party can “collectively put this behind us and concentrate of the Prahran and Werribee byelections and holding the Allan Labor government to account”.
The announcement of the second vote to readmit Deeming comes as speculation mounts over a challenge to Pesutto’s leadership.
Several moderate Liberal MPs have begun planning for a future without him as leader and are pushing for a Brad Battin and Jess Wilson leadership team to unite the left and right of the divided party room.
Guardian Australia understands Wilson, Michael O’Brien and Brad Roswell met Pesutto and urged him to stand down, but he refused.
Another MP said they “highly doubt” Pesutto would last in his position until 15 January.
