Moira Deeming will remain on the crossbench after vote calling for her readmission to the Liberal party room ended up a draw, with the MPs who supported her claiming the issue is far from resolved.
Liberal MPs gathered at parliament on Friday morning to debate a motion to reinstate Deeming to the party room, but it was defeated when it drew 14 votes to 14.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott, who had been pushing for Deeming’s return, described the result as “shameful”.
“How can someone elected as a Liberal be expelled on the basis of a lie and not be readmitted once the truth is there for all to see?” he wrote on X.
“Especially right before Christmas, the season of goodwill, this is a truly contemptible failure to act with honour and decency.”
The motion was put forward by MPs Chris Crewther, Renee Heath, Joe McCracken, Richard Riordan and Bill Tilley, who had argued Deeming had been unfairly expelled in May 2023. Her expulsion came two months 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 he pay her $300,000 in damages.
After Friday’s meeting, Pesutto said the motion would have failed regardless of his vote, as it required an absolute majority.
“I had proposed and did use that casting vote to vote the motion down, but as it turned out, the constitutional requirement applies in any event that an absolute majority of 16 is required, so it overrides everything else,” he said.
Pesutto said the vote “concludes the matter” and the opposition would turn its focus to holding the government to account and upcoming byelections in Prahran and Werribee.
In a statement, Deeming said Pesutto’s vote meant he “effectively vot[ed] twice” to block her return.
“This is despite his words last week, and despite him having a significant personal conflict of interest in the outcome today,” she said.
Deeming said she remained a “proud Liberal” and it was “only a matter of time” before she returned to the party room.
The meeting did not go to plan for Pesutto, whose backers had been confident Deeming’s supporters did not have the numbers for the motion to succeed. If the motion had passed, it could have spelled the end for his leadership.
Two MPs – Cindy McLeish and Nick McGowan – did not attend the meeting as they were on leave. Pesutto’s supporters said he would have had McLeish’s support and possibly that of McGowan’s.
Several Liberal sources described the meeting as “tense”. Riordan and fellow MP Nicole Werner were among those who spoke in support of the motion, while James Newbury, Wayne Farnham and Richard Welch opposed it.
The opposition’s police spokesperson, Brad Battin, had told reporters he would vote for Deeming’s return before he entered the party room with Sam Groth, who resigned from the frontbench after the judgment. Both are considered leadership aspirants.
Croydon MP David Hodgett arrived first, and told reporters while he believed there was a pathway back into the party room for Deeming, the five MPs who had called the meeting had gone about it the “wrong way”.
“I don’t think we should be here on Friday morning, dealing with internal Liberal party matters when we should have spent the week prosecuting Tim Pallas’ record as treasurer and other issues affecting the state,” Hodgett said.
“By doing it this way, they’ve probably done Moira a disservice.”
However, Crewther defended its timing and later described the result as “very disappointing”.
“The wrong decision was made today. Yes, it may be difficult to unite,” he said.
Riordan said he was “flabbergasted” by the result.
“We are in a worse position than we were to start with in the sense it’s not resolved, our party room is split down the middle,” he said.
