Gerardine Hoogland
Roman historian – the Republic. BA Ancient History, UQ. Writer. Political theorist. Liberty & Freedom Warrior. Federal candidate for United Australia Party, May 2022.
It is not my position to engage in gender balance arguments; I am a merit-based advocate for all things in life. However, this story is simply too good not to tell.
The story highlights strength, resilience, valour and honour – all those virtues which I write often about. The fact that it is a woman at the centre of it should not cause any controversy except that, in our modern world, where progress appears to have been inverted, it is one worth telling if not for any other reason than it exhibits all the hallmarks of triumph of the human spirit.
It also bolsters my stand on merit simply because it is a matter of survival of those who persevere, be that male or female. You want to enter the bear pit of politics? Then you need to play by the bear pit rules because you as a guardian or representative of the people represent everyone.
The legendary Briton, Boudicca, lived and died by this maxim.
In AD 60, Boudicca was left at the merciless hands of the Romans after her husband, Prasutagus, died. King of the ancient Iceni tribe of Briton, he allied with Nero, and upon his death left his kingdom to be governed by his wife in alliance with the emperor.
Instead, terror reigned down upon this warrior queen and her two daughters.
Boudicca, in turn, sought a vengeance so shocking that under her leadership the Britons sacked two of Rome’s most important cities, carrying out enough barbarism to make even the Romans blush.
Power tripping ego met conviction of belief in a scenario.
They were furious. And as the historian, Cassius Dio, tells us:
Moreover, all this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, a fact which in itself caused them the greatest shame.
This woman feared no Roman legionnaire. She led her armies with grit and a call to battle that would stir the spirit of anyone with breath in them.
Let us, I say, do our duty while we still remember what freedom is, that we may leave to our children not only its appellation but also its reality. For, if we utterly forget the happy state in which we were born and bred, what, pray, will they do, reared in bondage?
She challenged the depravity of having to live under the iron grip rule of Roman slavery.
You have learned by actual experience how different freedom is from slavery. Hence, although some among you may previously, through ignorance of which was better, have been deceived by the alluring promises of the Romans, yet now that you have tried both, you have learned how great a mistake you made in preferring an imported despotism to your ancestral mode of life, and you have come to realise how much better is poverty with no master than wealth with slavery.
Irrespective of the relative timelines, it is impossible to not recognise the perennial human zeal for complete control over others. The above was a period of barbaric brutalism that we in 2025 could not dare to comprehend. But we have our own version of this story in a more tempered, dare I say civilised, account.
Moira Deeming, member of the Legislative Council for Victoria, was expelled from the Victorian Liberal Party room for bringing discredit to the party by threatening to sue the leader, John Pesutto, over matters of defamation. Power tripping ego met conviction of belief in a scenario that would sit well in any ancient Roman forum, minus the togas, of course.
Deeming did indeed take Pesutto to court, and prevailed. Despite this legal decision and Pesutto’s unrepentant feeling toward her, he held a vote to return her to the fold, but which was deadlocked. Blowback ensued and the man who sought to be king agreed to another vote, which this time resulted in a resounding victory of 23–4 to allow Deeming to return.
Deeming was in. Pesutto was out.
Her response to the waiting journalistic jackals was classic. With echoes of Boudicca, Deeming refused to be drawn into any talk of gender inequality within her party:
I won’t be taking lectures on the gender balance of our team from anybody who can’t define what a woman is. We have amazing women in our team. They’re not all about ego and position. We will all burrow down and do our jobs, and we’ll work wherever we’re best placed to work.
It is important to recognise the fickleness of those MPs who first voted to block Deeming’s return but who quickly afterwards backflipped spectacularly. It proves how important leadership is, and equally important the calibre of person sent to represent us.
You want to enter the bear pit of politics? Then you need to play by the bear pit rules.
And it is not something unique to our time. Tacitus tells us that the Romans were initially spooked by the sheer boldness of the Britons:
The legion which had dared battle had fallen; the rest were concealing themselves in camp.
Just as Boudicca rallied with her people, not deferring to her ancient ancestry as an excuse to merely observe while sending them into battle, but a woman who was willing to fight on the frontlines, so Deeming stood with conviction without flinching from her own responsibilities as a political representative.
The Romans met their match in Boudicca just as the Liberal Party of Victoria met theirs in Deeming. In acts of defiance these women represent what we can achieve if we stand firm on truth and have courage to act to protect it. Sadly, for the Britons, Boudicca died either from sickness or poison in her quest to reclaim her and her nation’s freedom. Fortunately for Deeming and the state of Victoria as well as Australia’s political health more broadly, she prevailed.
Let freedom reign!
This article was originally published by Liberty Itch.
