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The Victorian Liberal Party has begun the process of severing ties with its most controversial MP, with Opposition Leader Jess Wilson on Friday sending a clear message to Moira Deeming that she has lost the support of the party.
Wilson publicly backed Matthew Guy’s demand for a public apology from Deeming after a police investigation found no substance to Deeming’s allegations he had assaulted her. She said she would meet Deeming once she returned home from an overseas conference.
“Matthew is someone who has given his life to service,” Wilson said. “He has given his life to the Liberal Party, and I support his request for an apology.
“I have reached out to Moira, and I have requested when she returns to Melbourne that we speak and have a conversation.”
Wilson’s first substantive comments about the latest imbroglio surrounding Deeming, while carefully framed, reflect a broad consensus across both moderate and conservative groupings within the Liberal Party that Deeming must go.
Several senior Liberal figures, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal party matters, said Deeming’s unsubstantiated accusations against Guy had exhausted the patience of even her most loyal supporters and she was now completely isolated from the party.
Deeming was preselected two months ago to recontest her upper house seat at the November state election.
“I can’t find a single supporter of Moira who is left in the state or federal parliamentary parties, in the organisational wing, in our wider movement,” one senior Liberal said.
“Even some of her most loyal supporters, people who have consistently and publicly defended her, are now saying they are finished with her.
“Her pathway is self-evidently clear.”
A senior member of Wilson’s team was equally emphatic: “She must resign or the party must act. She cannot possibly be our candidate going into November.”
Wilson’s preference, one shared by key figures in the federal Liberal Party and the administrative committee that governs the state party, is for Deeming to resign from the party and serve out the remainder of this parliamentary term as an independent.
Overtures are likely to be made by Liberals previously sympathetic to Deeming to convince her to quit.
She is in London, where she has spent the past three days attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference alongside federal Liberal Party president Tony Abbott, state party president Brian Loughnane, Loughnane’s wife and Sky News host Peta Credlin, and conservative luminaries from Britain and around the world.
An MP who sided with Deeming in her previous dispute with the party that triggered her successful defamation case against former leader John Pesutto said it was important for Deeming to retain control over her own political fate.
If Deeming cannot be persuaded to resign, the party may prepare disciplinary action that could lead to her suspension or expulsion and removal of her endorsement to stand for the party at the November 28 election.
The four vice-presidents of the administrative committee, Cathrine Burnett-Wake, Geoff Gledhill, Ellinor Read and Trent Sullivan, met on Thursday – a few hours before Victoria Police issued a statement announcing its investigation into Deeming’s assault allegations found no case for Guy to answer – to discuss the party’s next steps.
Deeming accused Guy of assaulting her by putting her in a violent headlock in the middle of a public dinner on May 23. CCTV footage taken from inside the Macedonian community event instead showed an innocuous interaction in which Guy briefly puts his arm on Deeming’s shoulder as the pair lean forward to hear one another in the middle of a crowded, noisy room.
Deeming lodged a complaint with police on June 16. Guy was not questioned by police.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said on Friday the CCTV footage told a clear story. “Often it is a matter of perception, but we deal with reality and we deal with evidence, and that is what we have made our decision based on,” he told Radio 3AW.
“It is mainly based on the video that is in the public domain. I think everybody has come to a similar conclusion.”
This masthead put multiple questions to Deeming concerning her allegations against Guy. She responded with insults and did not address questions. Deeming is scheduled to speak on Wednesday at a public function in Werribee.
Guy said on Friday that Deeming owed him a public apology.
“My family name, my reputation is not a political toy,” he said. “No one’s is.
“There was no ambiguity. I did not do what was alleged. The CCTV proves this, it did from the start, and Victoria Police agree.”
He said he was also owed an apology from Premier Jacinta Allan and Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny, who on Thursday sought to exploit the turmoil caused by Deeming’s claims for political gain.
Guy’s hands were trembling as, flanked by his personal lawyer, he read a prepared statement that could serve as a clarion call to those who fear being falsely accused by women.
“Every Australian male, probably over 40, seems to be blamed, scapegoated, not believed, and now thrown under the bus, even by our own government,” he said.
Wilson and other party figures are determined to ensure Deeming’s exit from the party does not descend into a gender war. Aside from levelling unsubstantiated criminal allegations against a fellow Liberal MP, Deeming only sporadically attends party room meetings and has recently been absent from upper house votes relating to important legislation.
“She just rolls in and everyone is too terrified to take her on because of her litigious nature,” an MP said.
Deeming, a trans-sceptical feminist, first came to prominence in March 2023 for attending a Let Women Speak rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament gate-crashed by neo-Nazis.
The day after the rally, the then leadership team of John Pesutto, Georgie Crozier, David Southwick and Matt Bach met in the leader’s office to decide what to do about Deeming. One of their concerns, which has turned out to be prophetic, was that if nothing were done, Deeming would “blow up” the party months before the 2026 election.
Instead, their decision to suspend Deeming from the party room on flimsy evidence of wrongdoing poisoned Pesutto’s leadership.
If disciplinary action is required against Deeming, it will be run through the administrative committee chaired by Loughnane. Any MP found to have brought the party into disrepute can be suspended or expelled from the party.
A complicating factor in any proceedings against Deeming is that some members of the committee are currently suing others over the use of party funds to cover the legal costs Pesutto owed Deeming from their defamation case.
That matter remains before the Supreme Court even though the former lead plaintiff, Colleen Harkin, last week quit the Liberal Party to join One Nation.
Despite speculation that Deeming may also join One Nation, leader Pauline Hanson has expressed no interest in recruiting her.
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