As I wrote last week, obstreperous conservative MP Moira Deeming is rocking the Victorian Liberal Party boat yet again. With an election in that state looming, the big question is whether the latest brouhaha will sink the party’s chances against even the deeply unpopular Labor government.
The Victorian Liberal Party is expected to dump controversial MP Moira Deeming as its candidate for the November election for refusing to apologise to her partyroom colleague Matthew Guy, despite conceding he did not put her in a headlock.
This is just the latest in a series of dramas for the Vic Libs, most of them self-inflicted, around Deeming. For years the party machine, controlled by the wet, weak ‘moderates’, has treated Deeming as toxic for daring to defend women’s spaces and biological reality. It all came to a head when now-former leader John Pesutto branded her a Nazi and white supremacist for speaking at a Let Women Speak rally.
Deeming sued and won. The party responded by trying to raid its own funds to pay Pesutto’s costs so he would not go bankrupt and lose his seat. They then tried to install an Indian migrant in her own preselection – until he was forced to resign over links to a convicted sex offender.
Members of the party’s state executive were expecting Opposition Leader Jess Wilson to make the move and ask to have her preselection revoked.
Presumably, then, they’ve got another token Indian lined up, in a blatant effort to pander to the butter chicken tsunami that has swamped Victoria as comprehensively as it has New Zealand.
At stake is the very existence of the Vic Libs. If they blow this election, their defeat will be as fatal as it would be humiliating. Despite the sheer revulsion in the electorate for Labor, the Libs aren’t doing much to make themselves electable. Consequently, polling for the imminent state election shows One Nation drawing level with both Labor and the Liberals.
For Deeming, her explanation of the alleged ‘headlock’ rings weak and unconvincing. Even if made in good faith, her allegation was quickly dismissed by police. Explaining is losing and in politics perception is everything.
For the Libs, though, booting her risks making her a martyr and handing One Nation yet another gift. A close ally of Deeming’s, Colleen Harkin, has already quit the Liberals, with strong rumours she’s heading to Pauline Hanson’s party.
If Deeming herself is dumped and crosses the floor, it will be a massive boost to One Nation’s already surging chances in Victoria. The Libs’ moderate faction, more interested in inner-city virtue signalling than winning suburban seats, keeps alienating the conservative base that should be their natural support.
The broader picture is damning. Despite Labor’s litany of failures – exploding debt, energy chaos, crime waves and ideological obsessions – the Liberals remain mired in self-inflicted drama. Polling shows One Nation drawing level with both major parties. Working-class voters, fed up with woke nonsense and cost-of-living pain, are abandoning the Libs in droves.
If Matthew Guy chooses to launch a defamation lawsuit against Deeming, it will mire the Liberals in yet another drawn-out scandal they desperately don’t need heading into an election. The party room is reportedly pushing frantically for change, but the ‘moderates’ keep doubling down on the same failed strategy: purge conservatives, pander to migrants and inner-city trends and hope voters forget Labor’s record.
It won’t work. Victorians are exhausted by Labor’s incompetence, but they’re not rushing to a party that treats its own as enemies while the state burns. One Nation is the protest vehicle of choice for those tired of both sides’ failures. The more the Vic Libs tear themselves apart over Deeming, the stronger Hanson looks.
The election in November is shaping up as a referendum on whether the Liberals can rediscover their spine or continue their slow death spiral. At this rate, Jacinta Allan might just stagger over the line again, despite everything.
For a Liberal Party that should be cruising to victory, that would be close to an irrevocable death-knell.
