MELBOURNE, VIC. — Liberal Party members are “holding active discussions” to disendorse the upper house MP (Legislative Council), Moira Deeming, after she refused to apologise to her Victorian Liberal Party colleague Matthew Guy, after Deeming accused Guy of “placing her in a headlock”, which Deeming then rapidly reported to police.
Shadow Attorney-General James Newbury confirmed to media yesterday that Opposition Leader Jess Wilson was withdrawing her offer to meet with Ms Deeming, and that the [Liberal] party would shortly be taking action against her. “Moira Deeming released a statement saying that she was not willing to apologise,” he said.
“Therefore, there will not be a meeting between Jess Wilson and Moira Deeming; the [Liberal] party is now working on the next action it will take.”
VicNews has spoken to several branch-level Liberal Party members who are claiming that Ms Deeming has brought the [Liberal] party into ‘disrepute’ and that “there were talks on how she could be removed” whilst limiting further political fallout.
Any move against Ms Deeming, according to sources, may take “weeks or months”, but “conversations were now being had.”
Mr Newbury would not confirm what exact action would be taken by the Victorian Liberal Party, but he did indicate that the “party administration” could deselect her as a Liberal Party candidate before the upcoming Victorian state election in November.
Deeming has previously fought to stay in the parliamentary party, after Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto inferred Ms Deeming knew organisers of an anti-trans rally had established links to neo-Nazis.
Historical Telegram chats from Monica Smit’s “ReIgnite Democracy Australia” and Bec Walker’s (aka Bec Freedom) “March for Australia” and the now-illegal National Socialist Network (NSN) show Ms Deeming being invited to address the rally. She accepted the invitation.
Ms Deeming later claimed, as she faced her first expulsion from the Victorian Liberal Party, that the NSN “hijacked the Let Women Speak rally.” That is not true. Ms Deeming was invited to attend and address the neo-Nazi rally and was fully aware of who was organising the neo-Nazi rally, who would be speaking at the rally, and she chose to, of her own accord, to participate in the neo-Mai rally anyway.
It was never, as any journalist following these groups on Telegram would know, that neo-Nazi’s “gatecrashed” the “Let Women Speak” rally. Deeming was invited to attend and speak by neo-Nazis. She chose to attend of her own accord, before trying to backtrack rapidly when it all fell apart.
Ms Deeming, a former teacher and City of Melton councillor, suggested she wasn’t aware of the links when the pair met, but her party colleagues did not believe her.
- SBS World News was a source in this report.
