After Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto described the expulsion of Moira Deeming from the Liberal party room as "a line in the sand" after weeks of internal battles, the party's state president has urged members to "unite" and "move forward".
The 30-strong party room voted 19 to 11 to oust Ms Deeming on Friday, and to demote another MP, Renee Heath, from her position as party room secretary.
Mr Pesutto described the day's events as a "strong turning point" for the Victorian Liberals.
Partyroom tensions have been bubbling away for weeks since Ms Deeming was suspended from the party room for nine months after taking part in an anti-trans-rights rally on a Saturday in mid-March.
As the rally unfolded on the steps of Victoria's parliament, neo-Nazis gatecrashed the event — a development Ms Deeming denounced and distanced herself from amid the fallout.
She has since called on Mr Pesutto to publicly state she was not associated with the neo-Nazis, but the opposition leader has repeatedly said no retraction was necessary.
Those tensions came to a head in recent days as the exiled MP flagged taking legal action against Mr Pesutto on defamation grounds.
After Friday's decision, Mr Pesutto said for those who voted in favour of Ms Deeming's expulsion, the threat of legal action was key.
"I know for many members that the idea of a member of the party taking legal action against the leader was crossing a Rubicon that was not really open," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
He said the talk of legal action, which was first raised a week ago, was a "catalyst" for five MPs to raise a motion to expel Ms Deeming.
"We've got through that, it's now a line in the sand for us and we can move forward," Mr Pesutto said.
"We've got a budget coming up on Tuesday week, a sitting week next week and we've got outstanding issues we want to pursue the premier and his ministers on — a lot of business to transact in the parliament."
In a letter sent to rank-and-file Liberal members on Friday, state president Greg Mirabella hosed down speculation about Ms Deeming being expelled from the wider party, and wrote to members that "winning elections is a team sport".
"It is incumbent on all of us to unite behind the parliamentary team and its leader, and move forward," he said.
He made reference to the creation of the Liberal Party in the 1940s and said its founders "accepted that to succeed we must be united and outward looking".
When Mr Pesutto was asked whether he had spoken to the 11 MPs who voted against expelling Ms Deeming, he said he was yet to speak to all of them but was working his way "across the party room".
"I'm just conscious that I want to keep everybody together," he said.
"There's an opportunity coming out of this party room meeting to do that.
"We're conscious of the responsibility we have to hold the Andrews government to account."
Senior Liberal says Pesutto 'doing the right thing'
The saga that's been dominating talk of the party for weeks has drawn the ire of federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who threatened to stage an intervention, saying he wanted the "mess sorted out as soon as possible".
One senior Victorian Liberal figure said Ms Deeming was intent on blowing the party up for her own self-promotion and backed Mr Pesutto's actions.
"He's doing the right thing, these people are only focused on themselves rather than what is good for the opposition,'' they said.
The senior figure said the party was growing tired of MPs pursuing personal interests rather than representing their constituents or the needs of the opposition.
Others, including former opposition leaders Matthew Guy and Michael O'Brien, have thrown their support behind Mr Pesutto, with Mr Guy describing some members of the Victorian Liberals as "terrorists".
After Friday's expulsion of Ms Deeming, relegating her to a position on the crossbench, there was speculation the party administration was actively considering expelling the former high school teacher from the wider party.
But in his letter to members, Mr Mirabella said that was "not correct" and the committee was yet to meet.
Meanwhile, another first-time MP, Trung Luu, will take on the role of secretary of the party room following Ms Heath's demotion.
