Moira Deeming urges Liberal colleagues to allow her to stay in party room

A Liberal MP is flying back from an international family holiday to have his say in the fate of controversial MP Moira Deeming, while she urges her colleagues to give her another chance.

Liberal MP Sam Groth has interrupted an international family holiday to be at today’s party room vote to expel colleague Moira Deeming.

The Herald Sun has been told Mr Groth flew into Melbourne from Fiji early on Monday morning, and is expected to fly out again later today.

Supporters of Mrs Deeming believe Mr Groth will support the motion to expel her from the party.

They had expected he would miss today’s meeting, boosting their hopes the motion would be defeated.

But a late counting of numbers on Monday morning had deflated the hopes of Mrs Deeming’s backers who couldn’t see a path to victory.

Earlier, the outspoken Liberal MP wrote to colleagues urging them to reject a bid to expel her from the party.

Victorian Liberal MPs will meet at 10am on Monday to vote on the expulsion motion which is being driven by Opposition Leader John Pesutto.

In a last ditch plea to colleagues emailed on Sunday afternoon, Mrs Deeming urged them to carefully consider their vote.

“I respectfully write to ask that you vote against the motion to expel me from the Liberal Party Parliamentary team because I am innocent of these charges, I am a brand new MP and deserve the chance to learn from this, and because guilt by various degrees of association is not a standard that any one of us can avoid transgressing,” she said.

Liberal MP Moira Deeming has urged colleagues to vote against the motion. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“I want you all to know that I have learned many painful lessons from this experience, and that I deeply regret the trouble this has caused my state and federal colleagues and the wider party membership.

“And also, that my offer to publicly back the current leadership team if the vote to expel me fails, still stands.”

Mrs Deeming is facing expulsion over alleged links to far-Right extremists that came to light after she attended last weekend’s Let Women Speak rally on the steps of parliament that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

Mr Pesutto had a 15-page dossier of evidence compiled and sent to all MPs to back his case for expulsion.

John Pesutto released a 15-page dossier of evidence.

“People have tried to convince him to drop the vote, there were other ways to deal with this, but he won’t back down,” one source said.

He has accused Mrs Deeming of “conducting activities in a manner likely to bring discredit on the Parliament or the Parliamentary Party.”

Mrs Deeming has vehemently denied any extremists associations, and has publicly denounced Nazism.

“I love the Liberal Party and I truly want to stay part of our Parliamentary team. Regardless of the outcome of this vote, I’ll be keeping my Liberal Party membership and representing us in Parliament to the best of my ability,” she wrote to colleagues.

“Although the vote to expel an MP should be based on facts and evidence, I do understand and lament the fact that as a Party we seem to be wedged between two very unpleasant media narratives.

“The first false narrative is that I or the Liberal Party are in any way, shape, or form, directly or indirectly somehow ‘pro-Nazi’, due to my affiliation with the “Let Women Speak” Australia campaign. This accusation is demonstrably false. It has been damaging in the extreme to my reputation and to the Liberal Party brand.

Deeming wrote in the email: ‘I love the Liberal Party and I truly want to stay part of our Parliamentary team’. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“The second narrative is that the Victorian Liberal Party Parliamentary team is anti-women and anti-free speech for punishing my advocacy and involvement with a legal and mainstream ‘women’s rights’ campaign event, previously attended and supported by other senior female Coalition MPs like Senator Jacinta Price and Senator Claire Chandler.

“I believe that we can take control of this situation and create for ourselves, a third media narrative- one where we avoid both catastrophes and emerge united as a team around the current leadership.”

Mrs Deeming again condemned Nazism unreservedly, and offered to make a second public statement to that effect.

She also reminded colleagues she condemned bigotry towards the LGBTQI+ community.

“I acknowledge that I did not follow up on my requests made at our inaugural Coalition conference, for specific help with how to wisely manage my pursuit of fairer sex-based protections. My offer to take close guidance from ‘wiser heads’ on these issues into the future, still stands.”

It comes as former Prime Minister Tony Abbott joined efforts to save Mrs Deeming from expulsion.

The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Abbott spent time personally lobbying state MPs over the weekend in an effort to convince them not to back the motion.

It is understood he was able to convince at least one MP with others now reconsidering their vote, according to several party room sources.

Sources from both camps still believe the vote will be tight.

Federal Liberals have been left enraged at the expulsion motion, which will take place just six days before the Aston by-election.

Many have questioned Mr Pesutto’s political judgment over the matter, and criticised a lack of evidence to warrant such a serious sanction.

He has insisted the move is about the “future of the party” and his plans to lead a “modern Liberal Party that is mainstream and embraces diversity”.

There is a view that any move to expel Mrs Deeming from the wider Liberal Party would fail, and sources say she has no plans to resign her membership.

It means if she is expelled she would remain an independent Liberal Party MP which could undermine Mr Pesutto’s ongoing authority.

A vote to keep Mrs Deeming in the party would likely kill Mr Pesutto’s leadership and he would face calls to resign less than four months after taking the job.

Some Liberals believe even if he wins the vote, Mr Pesutto’s leadership won’t survive in the long term.

Brad Battin, who lost a leadership vote to Mr Pesutto by a single vote, is considered the most likely to take his place.

Mr Abbott’s intervention was the latest in a series of efforts by federal Liberals who are furious at the move to expel Mrs Deeming.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson personally lobbied Mr Pesutto to drop the motion, while other federal party figures tried to offer an alternative.

Mrs Deeming will address her colleagues ahead of the vote on Monday.

Originally published as Moira Deeming urges Liberal colleagues to allow her to stay in party room