From culture warrior to lame duck – Deeming dumped by Liberals
Moira Deeming has been dropped as a Liberal candidate for the November election and will spend her remaining days in parliament as a lame MP.
The decision by the party’s state leadership, which met in Melbourne on Friday to take the extraordinary step of canceling Deeming’s candidacy, signals the likely end of Deeming’s political career and a devastating four-year ordeal for the Liberal Party.
The final vote was unanimous to disapprove.
The Liberal Party board’s intervention, which was delayed by two weeks due to a lawsuit brought by Deeming, came as Deeming refused to apologize for making false allegations of subjugation against his Liberal colleague Matthew Guy, a former state leader.
This followed Deeming’s highly publicized libel suit against Guy’s successor, John Pesutto. Although successful, the lawsuit destroyed Pesutto’s leadership, exposed the private communications of his Liberal colleagues and rendered the Coalition dysfunctional as an opposition for much of 2023 and 2024.
Dropping Deeming’s candidacy will reassure opposition ranks that were previously divided over his role in the party but are now united in wanting him gone. A text sent from a Liberal figure to colleagues on Friday said: “Happy Moira Endorsement Day to everyone celebrating.”
This also paves the way for Pesutto, who has been in exile since losing leadership in December 2024, to serve as a minister in the next government if the Coalition returns to power after November 28.
A new preselection process for the No. 1 position on the party’s Western Metropolitan Region upper house list (which has a certain number of seats in parliament) will be completed at the state government’s next meeting on Thursday.
Two Liberal sources who could not publicly discuss internal party matters said a new candidate would be chosen quickly by the provincial government rather than through another vote among branch and provincial council members.
Melbourne deputy mayor Roshena Campbell, western suburbs community leader Jenny Matic and Liberal MP Trung Luu, currently in second place, have been put forward as possible candidates.
Deeming was invited to briefly address Friday’s meeting via video link, and no charges have been formally brought against him. The meeting lasted only 13 minutes.
The meeting was held not to decide on a disciplinary process against Deeming, but to decide the narrow question of whether it was in the best interests of the party to retain him as a candidate.
Deeming had previously laid out his arguments for remaining an approved candidate in a 12-page document submitted to top administrators in the state.
In her statement, she said she made her allegations against Guy “through the appropriate channels” and did not leak details to the media.
“Each member should be able to voice genuine concerns through appropriate channels, with due process, and without fear that doing so may later be grounds for retaliatory disciplinary action,” he wrote.
“Whether a bona fide complaint can ultimately be proven is another question.”
He thinks she accused Guy of assault by striking her in the neck while she was sitting at a table during a Macedonian community dinner in Sunshine West on May 23. In text messages to colleagues, he compared the force applied to smashing the base of his skull with a wine bottle.
She initially referred the allegations to Jess Wilson’s office and was advised to take the matter to Victoria Police if she believed she had been assaulted. He gave a statement to the police on June 16.
Victoria Police launched an investigation but abandoned the matter without questioning Guy after CCTV footage obtained from the venue and published by this imprint showed he did not have a case to answer.
Deeming refused to apologize for the incident and maintained he had done nothing wrong.
In her statement, Deeming said she misunderstood the meaning of the yoke and did not recant her claim that Guy had been rude to her at dinner. He detailed what he claimed was a “persistent pattern” of personal hostility towards Guy that began before he entered parliament.
She said Guy’s behavior towards her at the dinner was “unexpected, unwelcome and distressing”.
“Without warning or permission, Mr. Guy reached in front of the person sitting between us, grabbed me tightly by the back of my neck and shoulders, gripped me painfully, and pulled me diagonally forward and downward towards him,” she wrote.
This account is not supported by CCTV footage, which shows Guy briefly placing a hand on Deeming’s shoulder and leaning forward as the pair chatted in the middle of a noisy, public event.
To support his claim, Deeming presented the state government with a presentation from mixed martial arts fighter and United Australia Party candidate in the 2022 federal election, Elvis Sinosic.
Watching the footage, Sinosic suggested that Guy may have subjected Deeming to a “one-arm Thai clinch,” a submission stance used in Muay Thai fighting. Although Guy is a famous political boxer, he has not trained in Muay Thai.
Sinosic’s current relationship with the Libertarian Party, as a member of the party’s federal leadership, may provide an insight into Deeming’s political future.
Pauline Hanson, founder and president of One Nation, has publicly said she is not interested in recruiting Deeming to her party. “You don’t do that to your colleagues,” he said of Deeming’s treatment of Guy.
Deeming is free to attend Liberal party room meetings and sit alongside colleagues on the opposition benches in the upper house. He is not the first MP to be disconfirmed, but perhaps the first MP to be re-approved and removed from candidacy in 3.5 months.
Known as a culture warrior on women’s gender rights, Deeming was first elected to represent the Liberal Party in 2022 and was re-elected in April this year after it was revealed in a vote between branch and state council members that the candidate who defeated her had provided a character reference for a convicted child sex offender.
Deeming was later confirmed to retain his seat, with the vocal support of party leader Wilson. On Friday, Wilson, along with his fellow state governors, voted to rescind his party affiliation.
Wilson said: “The Victorian Liberal Party State Executive has decided that Moira Deeming will no longer represent the party as a candidate for the Western Metropolitan Region in November.
“This matter has now been concluded. My main focus remains on the issues that matter to Victorians and outlining our plan for a fresh start this November.”
Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He had previously served as the newspaper’s chief correspondent and was a journalist with 30 years of experience.Connect via email.
