Victorian Liberal MPs will gather on Friday for the second time in six weeks to determine whether Moira Deeming is expelled from their party room.
Deeming was suspended for nine months in March – after attending an anti-transgender rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis – in a compromise that exposed the vulnerability of John Pesutto as the party’s leader.
Since her suspension, the Liberal party has descended further into chaos, with MPs accusing Pesutto of bullying and others claiming there are “terrorists” within the party holding it “hostage”.
Here’s all you need to know ahead of Friday’s vote:
Who is Moira Deeming?
Deeming is an MP serving in the Victorian parliament’s upper house. The former teacher was preselected in July for the unloseable top spot on the Liberal ticket for the western metropolitan region. She replaced the controversial MP Bernie Finn, who had been expelled from the party room.
Deeming had been elected to Melton city council in 2020 after advocating for separate toilets for trans people. She had also criticised Victoria’s Safe Schools program, which aims to prevent bullying against LGBTQ+ students, and cast doubt on Covid-19 vaccines.
Why did the Liberals try to expel her the first time?
Since her elevation to parliament, Deeming has caused headaches for the party’s leadership team, made up of Pesutto and other MPs who are considered moderates.
Deeming was privately censured by the team after her maiden speech, in which she called for an inquiry into transition practices. A month later she spoke at an anti-trans rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, who performed the Hitler salute on the front steps of parliament.
Community backlash to the protest prompted the leadership team to move to expel her from the parliamentary party room.
How did the expulsion motion go?
While conservative Liberal MPs – who aren’t fans of Pesutto, the party’s new leader after the election loss – rallied around Deeming, others also argued expulsion was too severe a punishment.
A compromise deal was reached at a meeting in March: Deeming was suspended from the party room for nine months and stripped of the role of Liberal upper house whip.
Pesutto said Deeming had made “important concessions” before the meeting.
She issued a statement that evening conceding that attending the event “may have been an error of judgment”.
What’s happened since?
The next day Pesutto said Deeming was “not off to a good start” after she tweeted a denial that she condemned the women who organised or spoke at the event.
Parliament then went on Easter break. When it returned six weeks later, the saga resumed when Pesutto was forced to deny he was a bully after allegations were made he had brought Renee Heath, a Deeming ally, to tears in a party room meeting.
So why has this flared up again?
According to a version of the minutes from the March meeting, reported by the Australian, Pesutto agreed to issue a “joint statement” with Deeming to “make it clear that no one was accusing Moira of being a Nazi, or Nazi sympathiser”.
Pesutto denies he made such an agreement. He also denies he has ever accused her of being a Nazi or having Nazi sympathies.
Deeming emailed Pesutto last week, claiming he had not kept to the agreement. She said if he did not release a statement by 2pm on Thursday she would “instruct [her] lawyers to commence legal proceedings”.
The move did not go down well, with many MPs who previously supported her concerned she had gone “too far”.
Deeming backed down from the threat, issuing a statement on Saturday denying that she had planned to sue the party and claiming she only wanted a lawyer’s assistance to help clear her name.
That same afternoon, five MPs – Roma Britnell, Wayne Farnham, Matthew Guy, Cindy McLeish and James Newbury – provided notice they would move a motion to expel her from the party room for “bringing discredit” on the parliamentary team.
On Thursday Pesutto’s office confirmed he had received a defamation concerns notice from Deeming’s lawyers. The letter warned of possible federal court proceedings if Pesutto did not immediately seek the withdrawal of Friday’s expulsion motion, publish an apology to her on his website and pay her compensation and legal costs.
Does the motion have support?
Those backing the motion are comfortable it will pass.
But the MP Richard Riordan argued that under Liberal party rules, a notice to expel a member must specify the reasons for such proposed expulsion and be signed by the five MPs. The notice does not.
What does this mean for the Liberal party?
Many MPs are hopeful it will finally bring an end to the infighting that continues to derail attempts to rebuild the party after two consecutive election drubbings. But if the last six weeks are any indication, it remains doubtful.
