Moira Deeming has lost her spot on the ballot for the Victorian Liberal party at the November state election, after a successful challenge by a moderate-backed candidate.
Liberal members gathered at party headquarters in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday for the western metropolitan region convention, where Deeming was defeated by Dinesh Gourisetty, a prominent figure in Melbourne’s fast-growing Indian community.
The loss has prompted speculation Deeming may consider a defection to One Nation or the Libertarians. This has been denied by her supporters, but One Nation state president Warren Pickering said on Sunday his party was “open to discussions” with the upper house MP, whom he called “courageous”.
Trung Luu, the other sitting upper house MP for the western metropolitan region, will retain the second position on the ballot after a failed attempt to secure the top spot.
The Liberals should retain two seats in the region at the November election, though there are concerns within the party that it may be competing with One Nation for seats in the traditionally safe Labor territory.
Deeming did not nominate for the second position and left the meeting after her defeat. Neither she nor her husband, Andrew, commented.
She was among four sitting conservative upper house MPs whose preselections have been challenged.
The Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, had backed each sitting MP in the preselection ballots and wrote a reference letter for Deeming, describing her as an “articulate and effective advocate for our party’s values in a part of Melbourne where people are increasingly interested in voting for change”.
Liberal sources said Wilson had also been phoning delegates in support of Deeming as late as Saturday.
Deeming also had the support of high-profile conservatives, including the former prime minister Tony Abbott and media commentator Peta Credlin.
But Gourisetty was understood to have built strong support across western suburbs branches, while the party’s executive committee was skewing more moderate under the president, Philip Davis.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailSixty-eight people took part in the vote, including delegates from the western suburbs branches, a random pool of metropolitan Melbourne members and the executive. According to supporters of Gourisetty, he secured preselection with 39 votes, compared to Deeming’s 26, while Luu received three.
Gourisetty’s supporters gathered outside party headquarters to celebrate what they called a “historic” result, which still requires endorsement from the party’s state executive.
If elected, Gourisetty would become the first Indian-Australian Liberal MP in Victoria’s parliament. Kaushaliya Vaghela was elected to the upper house for Labor in 2018.
Gourisetty attempted preselection in 2022, but he failed to secure the backing of the then state party president, Robert Clark, and his allies, in part due to breaches of the food safety act he pleaded guilty to in 2019.
It led to Deeming’s preselection, which created controversy due to her views on issues such as abortion and transgender rights.
Her profile then surged after she was expelled from the Liberal party room in 2023.
The expulsion came after she threatened legal action against the then leader, John Pesutto, for his comments after her involvement in a rally gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Deeming ultimately won the defamation fight, leading to Pesutto losing the leadership in 2024.
Deeming was brought back into the party room by his successor, Brad Battin, and appointed as the “leader’s representative to the western suburbs” – a role that was not continued under Wilson.
During the preselection process, Deeming complained to the party’s executive, alleging irregularities in the delegate selection, including early voting, a lack of ID checks and ineligible members being allowed to vote across several branches. She had called for the ballots to be declared invalid and re-run, but the executive rejected her request.
Four delegates who were expected to vote for Gourisetty were disqualified from voting on Thursday.
One senior Liberal source claimed Deeming’s concerns around the branch votes are “laying the groundwork” for a potential defection.
In a statement, Pickering said One Nation have a “well established, professional relationship” with Deeming and “shared conservative values”.
“Moira is a woman of great substance that has fought courageously and made great personal sacrifice for both the Liberal party, and the people of west metro,” he said.
“Regardless of the direction the Liberal party of Victoria has chosen to take, we’d hate to see Moira left in the same political wilderness with which the party itself has chosen to explore.”
He said Deeming would be “absolutely gutted” by the result and needed time to process it.
Libertarian MP David Limbrick said Deeming had been “treated dreadfully by the Liberal Party and will consider her options in her own time.”
“Moira and I have co operated on many issues during her time on the cross-bench. The Libertarians are ruling nothing out or in at this stage,” he said.
