Liam McNally
Western Metro MP and former Melton councillor Moira Deeming is “not off to a good start” with her suspension from the Liberal Party, according to Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto.
Ms Deeming narrowly avoided expulsion from the Liberals at a party room meeting on Monday, March 27, and instead was given a nine-month suspension and was removed from her position as upper house whip.
The suspension was a result of her involvement with organisers of the ’Let Women Speak’ rally earlier in March, which was attended by anti-transgender rights campaigners Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and Angie Jones.
Mr Pesutto said his reason for moving to expel Ms Deeming was because of “known links” the organisers had to neo-Nazis.
He evidenced his case with a 17-page dossier that was circulated last week, which included accounts of Ms Keen-Minshull appearing in interviews and at events with far-right extremists, and social media posts by Ms Keen-Minshull and Ms Jones.
Mr Pesutto said that one of the conditions of the compromise to not expel Ms Deeming was that she “unreservedly condemned the social media posts and other material that was referred to in the dossier”, which he said she did “both orally and in writing to the party room”.
Hours after the Monday meeting, however, Ms Deeming posted on Twitter that she “never condemned” Ms Keen-Minshull, Ms Jones, or another organiser Katherine Deves.
On Tuesday, March 28 Mr Pesutto told the ABC News Breakfast “if there are tweets going out that in any way contradict assurances, the representations that Moira gave to the party room that would obviously be a serious matter”.
“Moira’s not off to a good start and the party room will be very, very seriously concerned if Moira does not prove herself by faithfully observing what we agreed to,” he said.
“The result of the suspension is that Moira is out of the party room as we speak and it is up to her to prove that she’s worthy of re entering the party room at the expiration of 9 months.”
In a statement on Monday, released by Mr Pesutto’s office, Ms Deeming said she “accepted” her attendance at the Let Women Speak event “may have been an error of judgement”.
“As I have stated, I unreservedly condemn the poor taste Nazi jokes and Nazi analogies listed in the annex of evidence against me,” she said.
“I believe I am innocent of all imputations and accusations of any connection whatsoever with Nazism in any shape or form and any bigotry whatsoever toward the LGBTQI+ community.”
