Source : the age
Moira Deeming has launched legal action against the Liberal state president in a bid to prevent the party from disendorsing her as a candidate at November’s state election.
The embattled upper house MP will face the Supreme Court on Friday morning having lodged a case against Brian Loughnane, who took charge of the Victorian branch in May.
The party’s state executive had been scheduled to meet on Friday night to determine whether Deeming should remain in the No.1 spot on the Liberal upper house ticket for the Western Metropolitan region in November’s state election.
Party figures and MPs across moderate and conservative factions have developed a broad consensus in recent days that they need to cut ties with Deeming, after her unsubstantiated assault allegation against former Liberal leader Matthew Guy.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson demanded Deeming apologise to Guy for her claim, which was investigated and swiftly dismissed by Victoria Police.
Deeming refused to do so, saying through her lawyer earlier this week that she had nothing to apologise for, but that she had misunderstood the technical meaning of a headlock.
A Liberal source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the legal challenge was expected and had been factored into the party’s plans.
To prevent Friday’s state executive meeting from taking place, Deeming must clear two hurdles.
The first step is to convince the court that her case has merit and there is a serious question to be tried. The second is that, on the balance of convenience, the court should issue a temporary injunction restraining the state executive from meeting to determine her endorsement as a candidate.
Senior Liberal figures have told The Age that Deeming had exhausted the patience of even her most loyal supporters, and she was now isolated from the party.
Among her most prominent backers had been Sky News broadcaster Peta Credlin, who was former prime minister Tony Abbott’s chief of staff and is married to Loughnane, who is named in Deeming’s case to go before the court on Friday.
It will be heard by Supreme Court judge Kerri Judd, Victoria’s former Director of Public Prosecutions.
Deeming, a first-term MP, previously sued former Liberal leader John Pesutto for defamation, in a battle that divided the party after she attended a Let Women Speak rally on the steps of parliament that was gate-crashed by neo-Nazis.
The day after the rally, Pesutto’s leadership team met in the leader’s office to decide what to do about Deeming. One of their concerns, which has turned out to be prophetic, was that if nothing were done, Deeming would “blow up” the party months before the 2026 election.
Instead, their decision to suspend Deeming from the party room on flimsy evidence of wrongdoing poisoned Pesutto’s leadership. Her successful lawsuit sparked her return to the party room, weeks before he was ousted as leader.
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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.
