When Moira Deeming was preselected to represent the Liberal party in Victoria’s upper house, the then crossbencher Fiona Patten dubbed her “Bernie Finn in a skirt”.
Finn had spent almost four decades coasting through controversies until he was finally expelled from the parliamentary Liberal party in May last year after he called for abortion to be banned in Victoria, even for victims of rape, despite repeated warnings from the leadership over his social media posts.
Less than a year later, his replacement is likely to also be expelled from the Liberal party room.
Deeming – a backbencher only four months into her first term – has not been afforded the same luxury of time to run out of chances.
A day after she attended a rally headlined by British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen, gatecrashed by neo-Nazis who were photographed performing the Nazi salute, she was hauled into a meeting by the Liberal party’s leadership team and told they would seek to expel her from the party room.
Opposition leader, John Pesutto, and his deputies – David Southwick, Georgie Crozier and Matt Bach – came to the conclusion that Deeming’s association with organisers, who they say have links to extremists, necessitated her expulsion.
One of the people who attended the 90-minute meeting told Deeming her image “can’t be rehabilitated” after attending the rally.
“It’s not about whether you’ve associated with a neo-Nazi or not, we can’t afford to be even remotely associated with them,” another is understood to have said.
One MP accused her of running her own agenda, which is at odds with the leadership’s plans to be a “modern and inclusive” party. They suggested she quit the Liberals and run as an independent.
Deeming, however, has vowed to fight the expulsion and says she has done nothing wrong. Sources close to her believe the push is because of her anti-trans views, rather than her links to the rally’s organisers.
Indeed, Deeming’s association with the rally organisers should not have come as a surprise to the Liberal leadership team. Ten days before the rally, during a speech to the upper house on International Women’s Day, she encouraged her colleagues to join her at the rally. She also spread the word via social media.
She made her views well-known at the time of her preselection, and again after her inaugural speech last month, in which she called for an inquiry into transition practices in Victoria and railed against measures to include trans women in female-only change rooms and sports.
Pesutto told reporters it was not his job to “babysit MPs” and questioned why Deeming didn’t leave when neo-Nazis showed up or why she decided to “celebrate” afterwards with organisers in a video posted on YouTube, during which they sipped champagne as they discussed the rally.
“[That] tells you perhaps all you need to know about why it’s necessary to bring this motion,” he said on Monday.
Meanwhile, those within the party room who aren’t fans of Deeming – and privately have expressed frustration over her “obsession” with trans people – have questioned whether there is enough evidence to expel her. Some MPs have suggested alternative sanctions such as a fine or suspension.
Unsurprisingly, Pesutto’s critics are from a rival faction. Two MPs who sought to delay the expulsion vote – Brad Battin and Richard Riordan – and Ryan Smith, who criticised it in a radio interview, stood for the Liberal leadership after last year’s election loss.
Pesutto, a moderate, eventually won in a contest against Battin – the conservative’s preferred choice – by one vote.
His detractors say if the Deeming motion, which will go to a vote on Monday morning, fails, or even narrowly passes, it will sooner or later cost him the leadership. It’s a threat they shouldn’t be making if they are serious about keeping the party together.
But Pesutto won’t budge. Why should he?
In seeking to expel Deeming, he is delivering the type of bold, principled leadership that he promised when he took charge of the Liberals. And he’s proving to Victorians that he is serious about reforming the Liberal party, which last November’s election loss showed desperately needs to change.
Labor has been in office for three-quarters of the past four decades. They have also won the two-party preferred vote in Victoria in 12 of the past 14 federal elections. It’s clear whatever it is the Liberals are selling, Victorians don’t want to buy it.
Pesutto knows this. It’s why he largely ran his own campaign to reclaim the seat of Hawthorn from Labor in November. He ditched the negative, “anti-Dan” messaging and focused on issues that mattered to the community.
Since becoming leader, the party has turned down the temperature and focused on prosecuting the government on issues such as integrity, cost of living and health. Issues again, that matter to the community. In areas such as criminal justice reform, the party is working constructively with the government.
It’s clear Pesutto is emulating his mentor – who happens to be the last Liberal premier to win an election in Victoria from opposition – Ted Baillieu.
In the 2010s, as other centre-right parties began to fall down the populist rabbit hole, Baillieu’s government pursued several ambitious reforms, including Victoria’s first modern integrity regime, the nation’s first inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious institutions and celebrated multiculturalism and diversity.
But Pesutto will need to avoid the same fate as his mentor, whose time as premier ended prematurely after internal sabotage.
One MP, who is backing Monday’s motion, said they were confident Pesutto would be supported by the vast majority of the party room.
“For the first time in a long time we’ve got a leader who has got the guts to clean up the party,” they said of Pesutto.
“In my view, this will be the making of him. Victorians will see him differently after this, the party will see him differently after this.”
