Victorian Liberal Party Willingly Plunges Itself Into the Dark Ages

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto arrives at the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, on May 12, 2023. AAP Image/Diego Fedele

Commentary

The study of history reveals that the period in Europe from around 600 to 1500 AD is known as the “Dark Ages.” The person credited with this designation is the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca (aka Petrarch) who, however, was complaining about the appalling lack of quality of literature in his own time in Italy. Nevertheless, the “term persisted and historians started using ‘dark’ as a pejorative term to mean a period of superstition and stagnation in art, literature, and science.”

These historical ruminations came to our mind when reflecting on the chaos and imbroglio that the Victorian Liberal Party, in Australia, has created for itself.

The appalling treatment of MP Moira Deeming is one the darkest chapters in the history of this once great party. The Victorian Liberal Party is basically experiencing its own “Dark Ages.”

By now, the facts of the Deeming saga are well-publicised. She attended a “Let Women Speak Group” protest in Melbourne on March 18.

Organised by women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker), it rallied against trans-women participating in female sporting events; gender activism in schools; and accommodating trans-women in female prisons—a practice that, according to the group, might facilitate rape—and using women-only facilities.

However, a group of neo-Nazis gate-crashed their event and proceeded to perform the Nazi salute in front of the Victorian Parliament.

Police remove a protester during a transgender rights rally, involving opposing neo-Nazi protesters, outside Parliament House in Melbourne, Australia, on March 18, 2023. James Ross/AAP Image

For having merely attended the rally, Deeming was then vilified by some members of her own party as a “Nazi sympathiser,” which left her with no other choice than to take legal action against the leader of her own party, John Pesutto, in an attempt to clear all the false accusations against her.

So let’s be crystal clear on the facts: A group of women legally gathered to speak out for women’s rights in Australia, which was crashed by a group of Neo-Nazi males. The state’s Liberal leader and premier refused to listen to that group of women. Instead, they insisted that the Neo-Nazi males who crashed the rally represented and speak for those women.

Deeming, who was verbally and physically attacked at the rally on the steps of Parliament House, was held responsible for the actions of those Neo-Nazi men.

The Victorian Liberal leader then moved a motion to expel Deeming from the parliamentary Liberal Party for attending the event.

The motion was initially unsuccessful because Deeming gave an impassioned speech, indicating her total abhorrence of Nazi practices—she was raised by a Holocaust survivor—and was given a suspension of nine months.

And then, on May 12, Deeming was finally expelled from the Parliamentary Liberal Party, with a vote of 19 to 11. Although she will remain a member of the broader party, Pesutto says even this is currently under review.

“My understanding is the administrative wing of the party is considering the matter,” he said.

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto (2nd R) leaves his party room at the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, on May 12, 2023. AAP Image/Diego Fedele

Bad Government, Worse Opposition

It is completely mind-boggling how it is possible for anyone to think that this course of action will help the Liberal Party to win any election in the future.

The Deeming imbroglio will haunt this party for a long time and prevent it to serve as an effective opposition to one of the country’s worst Labor governments.

The expulsion will undoubtedly be a constant reminder that the Victorian Liberals are unwilling to stand by their party’s principles and effectively assist, even condoning, the Labor Party’s creation of a social engineering nirvana.

In a recent opinion piece, Prof. James Allan summarises the alarming state of the Victorian Liberal Party well:

“If Pesutto and the bulk of the party room cannot see that they are on the wrong side of this dispute—in free speech terms, in terms of travelling down the ‘guilt by association’ road, in preferencing the transgender activists over women, by responding almost immediately in line with the lefty social media framing of issues ... then it deserves to lose and lose badly.”

Lost Sight of Its Roots

Unfortunately, that is not the first time the Victorian Liberals have behaved in such an appalling manner towards one of their most competent parliamentary members.

On May 24, 2022, Victorian MP Bernie Finn was expelled from the Liberal Party following a motion that was triggered by a series of anti-abortion comments on social media. In addition to these comments, cited also as a reason for being expelled from the Liberal Party, was a Facebook post in which he compared the Victorian Labor premier with Hitler.

Police gather near Flinders Station in Melbourne, Australia. Melanie Sun/The Epoch Times

There are numerous other notorious examples that would horrify Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s longest-serving prime minister and the founder of the Liberal Party of Australia.

As Menzies once declared: “To be a good Liberal, to be a good Labor man, to be a good Country Party man, you will be all the better if you are a Christian.”

Apparently, no longer, as the message would seem to be clear: If you’re conservative or have traditional values, the Liberal Party doesn’t want you.

The Victorian Liberal Party is almost entirely run by those who oppose Christian moral values. Bit by bit, they have taken control of every facet of the party. Now, very few true conservatives remain.

Apparently, if you believe that killing babies in the womb is just plainly wrong and that men and women are not fully interchangeable, you will have no future in the Liberal Party of Victoria.

As such, the only crime committed by Moira Deeming is to have participated in a rally with women who actually believe that women are women and men are men!

Surely, the Victorian Branch of the Liberal Party has created and lives in its own “Dark Ages.”

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.