Source : the age
First, an apology about the topic of this week’s column. We have reached a stage in the Chronicles of Moira where the less written about the Victorian Liberal Party’s most corrosive MP, the better.
Had the party in its comically absent wisdom emptied a vat of hydrochloric acid onto the floor of parliament instead of choosing Moira Deeming to represent it in the upper house in 2022, it would have done less damage to the party’s reputation.
Instead, here we are – four years, three opposition leaders and two court cases later – with the Victorian Liberal Party finally moving to end its association with an MP who, while a liability in opposition, demonstrated through her exaggerated allegations against a party room colleague that she cannot be trusted with any meaningful role in government.
But, as we endure what remains of a she said/she said debate between Deeming and herself over whether fellow MP Matthew Guy assaulted her by putting her in a headlock at a public dinner (he didn’t) or was merely over-familiar in resting an uninvited hand on her shoulder (he probably was), it is worth reflecting on what we have learned about the Liberals from this latest hot mess.
The short answer is that under Opposition Leader Jess Wilson, the Victorian Liberals are starting to act like a grown-up political party.
That last sentence will stick in the throat of some readers, so let me explain.
When former leader John Pesutto became aware on the fateful evening of March 18, 2023, that Deeming had spoken at a women’s rights rally attended by neo-Nazis, the biggest mistake he made was rushing to judgment.
Pesutto’s chief of staff, Rodrigo Pinto-Lopez, was just five days in the job and inexperienced in politics but could see his boss sailing for the rocks. “I said that we need to slow down and not take an action precipitously and that we first need to gather and understand the relevant facts,” Pinto-Lopez later told the defamation trial that ended Pesutto’s leadership.
Instead, Pesutto moved within 24 hours of the rally to expel Deeming from the party on what turned out to be flimsy evidence.
Wilson, in her response to Deeming’s allegations against Guy, was determined not to repeat Pesutto’s mistake.
When Deeming came to Wilson claiming to be the victim of a violent assault by Guy at a May 23 dinner, the Liberal leader sought advice and provided the upper house MP with a range of possible avenues to resolve her grievance, including making a complaint to police.
Wilson’s deputy chief of staff, Lydia Paterson, a trusted friend of Wilson and political adviser who previously worked for the federal party in Canberra, dealt personally with Deeming, kept meticulous notes of their conversations and, despite invitations by this column to divulge what was said, protected her confidence.
After Deeming lodged a complaint with police on June 16 and the news of the scandal broke, Wilson’s office remained calm in the face of quickly unfolding events.
Within a matter of hours, CCTV footage of the incident emerged showing that Guy had no case to answer, police dropped their investigation and the question arose, not for the first time, of what to do with a problem like Moira.
Wilson, before saying anything publicly about the matter, deferred to Guy, who demanded an apology for what his lawyer described as a false allegation. Wilson then backed Guy and added her voice to his calls for an apology from Deeming.
When Deeming refused to issue one, Wilson referred the matter to the party’s governing board, the state executive. It will meet on Friday to determine whether Deeming is disendorsed as its first-choice candidate for Western Metropolitan Region at this year’s election.
If it votes as expected, Deeming will serve out the remaining days of this parliament and then reach the end of her short, combustive career as a Liberal MP.
The state executive, which still has some members suing others over an earlier episode from the Chronicles of Moira, is also demonstrating caution and restraint.
It could have debated a motion to expel Deeming from the party, but it won’t. It wasn’t compelled to give Deeming an opportunity to explain her actions at Friday night’s meeting, but it has.
If the state executive votes to disendorse Deeming, it will need the support of 75 per cent of its members. It is a high bar, which reflects a serious decision. The Victorian Liberal Party, for the first time in a long time, appears to be bringing a proportionate seriousness to the task.
There are a few reasons to explain this.
The first and most obvious is that Victoria is five months out from a state election that the Liberal Party could actually win.
This is a vastly different political environment to that which confronted Pesutto in early 2023, when the Labor Party had just secured a third consecutive term in government and Daniel Andrews was a premier at the height of his formidable political powers.
The second is that Wilson, through her family history with the Liberal Party and connections she has across both its liberal and conservative traditions, can muster a breadth and depth of support that Pesutto never could.
The third is that the federal party has pulled its head in while the state division sorts out its own affairs. It helps that Brian Loughnane, who agreed to chair the state executive as a favour to Wilson, is a former federal director and respected party elder. He is also married to Sky News broadcaster Peta Credlin.
That deafening sound you hear is the silence coming from Credlin, who for years served as Deeming’s shield-maiden. Credlin has let it be known that she is now done with Deeming. As Credlin goes, so does Tony Abbott.
Given the challenges that Victoria’s next government will face – stupefying debt, rampant corruption and a state economy in per capita recession – exiting Moira Deeming is small potatoes.
It is also a sign that come November, the Liberals might just offer voters a genuine choice.
Chip Le Grand is state political editor.
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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via email.
