MP takes Liberal state president Brian Loughnane to court over disendorsement
Moira Deeming has launched legal action against the Liberal state leader in a bid to stop the party rejecting her as a candidate in November’s state election.
The embattled upper house MP will face the Supreme Court on Friday morning for launching a lawsuit against Brian Loughnane, who took charge of the Victorian branch in May.
The party’s provincial leadership was scheduled to meet Friday night to decide whether Deeming will remain No. 1 on the Liberal upper house list for the Western Metro area in November’s state election.
Party figures and MPs from moderate and conservative groups have reached broad consensus in recent days that they should cut ties with Deeming following false assault allegations against former Liberal leader Matthew Guy.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson demanded Deeming apologize to Guy for his claim, but it was investigated by Victoria Police and quickly dismissed.
Deeming refused to do so and said through his lawyer earlier this week that he had nothing to apologize for but that he had misunderstood the technical meaning of the yoke.
A Liberal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a legal challenge was expected and was included in the party’s plans.
To prevent Friday’s state government meeting from being held, Deeming must overcome two obstacles.
The first step is to convince the court that your case has merit and that there is a serious problem that needs to be tried. Second, for convenience, the court must issue a temporary injunction prohibiting the state executive from holding meetings to determine his or her approval as a candidate.
Senior Liberal figures said: Age He said even Deeming’s staunchest supporters had exhausted their patience and were now isolated from the party.
Among his most prominent supporters was Sky News broadcaster Peta Credlin, who was former prime minister Tony Abbott’s private secretary and is married to Loughnane, who will appear in court in Deeming’s case on Friday.
The case will be heard by Supreme Court judge Kerri Judd, Victoria’s former Director of Public Prosecutions.
Deeming, a first-term MP, had previously sued former Liberal leader John Pesutto for libel over a fight that divided the party after he attended a Let Women Speak rally on the parliament steps that was stormed by neo-Nazis.
The day after the rally, Pesutto’s leadership team met in the leader’s office to decide what to do about Deeming. One of his concerns, which turned out to be prophetic, was that if nothing was done, Deeming would “blow up” the party months before the 2026 election.
Instead, their decision to remove Deeming from the party hall due to weak evidence of wrongdoing poisoned Pesutto’s leadership. His successful case allowed him to return to the party room weeks before he was ousted as leader.
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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.
