The Victorian Branch of the Liberal Party has expelled suspended MP Moira Deeming after a motion was put forth to party members on May 12.
Liberal MPs voted 19 to 11 to expel Deeming for “bringing discredit” to the party.
In a separate motion, Upper House MP Renee Heath was also removed as party secretary. Heath was responsible for taking disputed minutes from another meeting in March to expel Deeming.
Deeming did not turn up to the May 12 meeting after her lawyers served John Pesutto a May 11 defamation concerns notice, which threatened court action if the party leader did not immediately withdraw the motion, publish an apology to her on his website, and pay her compensation and legal costs.
But even though more than a third of the Liberal Party room voted against the expulsion, Pesutto declared the vote was a show of support for his leadership.
“The party needs to move forward,” Pesutto told reporters following the vote.
“We as a team are committed to being a disciplined, united, focused team.
“We know that in order to be an effective opposition … we have to be an inclusive, welcoming and engaged party that’s in touch with our local communities, talking about the issues that are relevant to them.
“Today, I was very pleased with the strong support I obtained for that vision of the party. Reform isn’t easy, and reform does take time.”
Backbencher Beverley McArthur, a conservative factional ally of Deeming, was one of the only Liberal MPs willing to say she would vote against the motion publicly.
Pesutto also dismissed speculation that his leadership had been weakened by events leading up to Deeming’s expulsion.
Looming Defamation Action Against Pesutto
The looming action against Pesutto would make Deeming’s expulsion more difficult, Rowville MP Kim Wells has said, adding that Pesutto’s leadership was an internal matter, reported AAP.In an email to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for Pesutto said that as the matter is “likely” to be before the courts, no further comments would be made in relation to the defamation lawsuit.
In the defamation concerns notice, lawyers for Deeming allege that Pesutto accused Deeming of “being a Nazi sympathiser” in his attempt to expel her from the party in March.
The notice asks Pesutto to pay Deeming compensation “by reason of the substantial damage, including damage to her reputation, which she has suffered as a result of the publication of the motion.”
“Although you have 28 days under the act to make amends, noting the serious and ongoing damage to our client’s reputation, this offer is open until 9 a.m. on Friday, 12 May 2023.”
Deeming was suspended for nine months after appearing at the “Let Women Speak” rally on March 18. The woman’s rights rally was overtaken by a neo-Nazi protest that was marred by violent clashes between the police and trans-activists who deemed the rally as having an anti-trans agenda.
“These accusations, and the motion to expel her, leaked by you to the media to be published as widely as possible, were defamatory of our client, are false, and have caused serious and potentially irreparable harm to her reputation,” her lawyer wrote in the concerns notice, reported The Australian.
“If you had contacted our client in an appropriate manner, investigated the events of 18 March 2023 in a meaningful way, or conducted yourself in a manner fitting your position as the Leader of the Opposition and the Parliamentary Liberal Party, the Motion [to expel Ms Deeming] should not have been instigated,” according to the letter, reported by the ABC.
“Instead of a balanced, considered and fair motion which reflected the events accurately, the Motion promoted a false narrative that the event was fuelled by racist and white supremacist rhetoric and ideology and supported and espoused Nazi ideology and that Mrs Deeming herself supported that rhetoric and ideology. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
On May 5, Deeming demanded that Pesutto agree to issue a media statement exonerating her of being a neo-Nazi or Nazi sympathiser or face legal action.
Deeming appeared to back down on May 6, saying she never considered suing the Liberal Party and instead contemplated legal mediation as a way to settle the conditions of her suspension.
“If Moira Deeming is going to take action to sue me and effectively the parliamentary Liberal Party … that would be a matter for her to consider. She’s free to do what she wants; I’m focused on holding the Andrews government to account,” Pesutto said.
On May 6, Deeming issued a statement on Twitter saying: “All I have ever wanted, since the leader’s failed attempt to have me expelling for allegedly bringing the party into disrepute, was to have my name cleared.”
Deeming was preselected for the upper house seat to replace Bernie Finn, who is a former Liberal MP and now state leader for the Democratic Labour Party.
Meanwhile, Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton appeared to avoid answering questions related to Deeming’s expulsion on May 11.
Dutton has not ruled out intervening in the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party. A spokesperson for John Pesutto said federal action was unnecessary and that matters related to party governance are for the organisational wing of the party.
Moira Deeming’s office has been approached for comment.
