The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, says Liberal MP Moira Deeming’s suspension is “not off to a good start” after she appeared to contradict his claims she made “important concessions” to avoid party room expulsion.
A vote to expel Deeming from the parliamentary Liberal party was abandoned during a marathon two-hour meeting on Monday, with MPs unanimously agreeing to a compromise deal that instead imposed a nine-month suspension on the upper house MP. She also lost the position of upper-house whip, which garners a $20,000 pay rise.
Despite avoiding explusion, Deeming was chastised by her leader on Tuesday, as well as by a number of MPs who spoke to Guardian Australia, with one saying they were “furious” at Deeming’s social media activity following the meeting.
“It’s a massive slap in the face to JP,” one MP said.
“It’s the exact opposite of what she committed to her colleagues she would do.”
Another MP questioned why it took Deeming until 7pm for her to release a statement after the meeting, which they argued was “completely watered down from what was agreed to”.
“It just looks like we’re being taken for a ride,” they said.
Pesutto had said he agreed to a suspension after receiving “new materials” from Deeming at 6.30am on Monday. This included “important concessions” following her attendance at rally headlined by British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen last weekend which, according to organisers, was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
Pesutto said Deeming specifically condemned comments made by Keen and the rally’s organiser, Angie Jones, contained in a 15-page dossier sent to all Liberal MPs.
“That’s what I wanted all along. I wanted it to be condemned, and she’s done that,” Pesutto said on Monday. “It would be different if there were no concessions from Moira.”
Hours later, Deeming took to Twitter to deny she had condemned either woman.
Deeming told Jones in a tweet: “Don’t worry, I never condemned you, or KD [Katherine Deves] or KJ [Keen].”
During a media blitz on Tuesday morning, Pesutto said there would be consequences if Deeming did not honour the agreement made in the party room.
“Moira is not off to a good start,” he told ABC TV. “The party room will be very, very seriously concerned if Moira doesn’t prove herself by faithfully observing what we agreed to.
“It’s entirely in Moira’s hands and it concerns me, it absolutely does, that those tweets appear to be contradictory, but I can tell you Moira won’t be able to re-enter the party room if she’s going to be speaking and acting inconsistently with what the party room agreed.”
A source close to Deeming said she had worked with a defamation lawyer to prepare a rejection of the case against her, which was emailed to colleagues at 6.30am on Monday.
The document, obtained by Guardian Australia, was interpreted by some within the party room as a threat that she would pursue legal action if she was expelled.
In the document, Deeming defends Keen, Jones and the “Let Women Speak” event, describing the allegations made by Pesutto and his leadership team as “false and deliberately and selectively misleading”.
The source said while the document was distributed on Monday morning, Deeming’s position had not changed since she first met with the Liberal leadership team the day after the rally.
“To characterise Deeming as delivering some sort of mea culpa on Monday is plain wrong,” they said. “They [the leadership team] walked back from their position because they knew they didn’t have the numbers.”
Guardian Australia understands Deeming also spoke at the meeting of her experience as a child sexual abuse survivor and how a Jewish uncle who survived the Holocaust took her in. She said false allegations against her of nazism would destroy her family’s name.
Deeming has not spoken publicly since the meeting but issued a statement, distributed by Pesutto’s office, conceding that attending the event “may have been an error of judgement”.
“As I have stated, I unreservedly condemn the poor taste Nazi jokes and Nazi analogies listed in the annex of evidence against me,” Deeming said.
Pesutto maintains he does not regret making the compromise to suspend Deeming.
“We had what was fair to describe as a very emotional party room meeting for many members, including a very revealing personal story by Moira that nobody could listen to without being moved in some way,” he said.
“When I heard that account, plus the unreserved condemnation in the written material sent to party members just before the meeting, I felt that empathy was required and justified … that’s why I put an altered proposal to the party room.”
It comes as the federal Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, warned his colleagues to remain disciplined ahead of the Aston byelection on Saturday.
“We can see in Victoria at the moment the damage that can be caused and the opportunities lost when we don’t act as a team, and when we talk about ourselves,” Dutton said, according to a briefing from a party room spokesperson.
It was clarified that Dutton was referring to the Deeming saga, which has now dragged on for nine days.
“And [the byelection] is going to be tight. We’ll be working every day until the polls close on April 1.”
Additional reporting by Josh Butler
