‘Let’s not talk about us’: Liberals won’t sanction Renee Heath over speaking events

The parliamentary Liberal Party has no plans to formally sanction upper house MP Renee Heath at next week’s party room meeting, despite concerns over her appearance at two events attended by conspiracy theorists.

The first-term Liberal MP attended an event in Rowville last week organised by anti-vaccination activist Morgan Jonas, the founder of the Freedom Party. She also gave a speech at a Traralgon rally on Monday afternoon promoted by the minor party’s candidate and former Neighbours actor Damien Richardson, who claimed authorities were “deracinating who we are as Australians”.

Upper house Liberal MP Renee Heath walking out of the opposition party room earlier this year. Credit: Darrian Traynor

To “deracinate” is to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from a place, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

The Age spoke to more than five state Liberal MPs on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, all of whom said there were no plans to formally sanction Heath. Her recent speaking engagements were not on the agenda for Tuesday’s party room meeting ahead of the next state sitting week, according to one MP.

“But it may be brought up [informally],” the politician said.

Another suggested the concerns raised by some Liberals were motivated by factional disputes.

“There are people hell-bent on revenge or getting her out,” the source said. “They’re now trying to re-prosecute her preselection even though she’s already there [in parliament].

“Have we not learnt? Let’s not talk about us. None of it is helpful. Members will disagree about lots of substantive issues, let alone what events we are attending.”

Another Liberal said: “Our job as an MP is to speak to the widest possible audience we can.”

Heath, who was an ally of exiled MP Moira Deeming when the parliamentary leadership initiated her expulsion, has said she attended last week’s event to support her father, Brian Heath, who was booked to speak. United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet and former federal MP Craig Kelly also attended the Rowville venue.

As for Monday’s appearance, Heath previously told The Age she was in Traralgon to talk about the closure of the native timber industry.

“I don’t endorse any of the views that were said before by other people that I didn’t know,” she said.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto has said he isn’t troubled by Heath’s speaking engagements, but has declined to say whether MPs have raised concerns with him.

“I won’t go into conversations with my colleagues,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“But ... I’m not troubled by Renee’s attendance for the reasons she said. We’re all focused as a team on the state of the Commonwealth Games fallout, the cost of living, cost blowouts and health.”

Deputy upper house Liberal leader Matthew Bach echoed those comments on Friday.

“I’m not concerned,” he said. “We had a great week in parliament last week with a unified attack on the government on a range of issues. We’ll be back in parliament next week.”

The first-term MP was removed as Liberal party room secretary back in May, the same day as Deeming’s expulsion.

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