Secret docs lift the lid on Katherine Deves’ past

Another social media post has emerged from controversial Liberal candidate Katherine Deves as what she declared to the party about her past is revealed.

Liberal candidate and self-declared radical feminist Katherine Deves described a leading gay newspaper as “the Rainbow Reich”.

In the latest of multiple references to the Holocaust in her online attacks on the trans community, the Liberals endorsed candidate for Warringah made the comments on her now deleted Twitter account.

“Pink News?,” she wrote.

“Bahahaha. That’s just a mouthpiece for misogynists and the Rainbow Reich.”

The history of the nation-state known as the German Reich is commonly divided into three periods: German Empire (1871–1918) Weimar Republic (1918–1933) Nazi Germany (1933–1945).

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Katherine Deves tweet about a leading gay newspaper.

The comments emerged after Ms Deves – the candidate the Prime Minister insists must not be silenced – banned the media from a Politics in the Pub event on Friday night.

It has also been revealed in documents first reported by The Saturday Telegraph that Ms Deves told the Liberal Party in a nomination form that she has never posted anything online that was offensive in nature.

The documents reveal Ms Deves is not currently employed but did work as a lawyer for a NSW firm from September 2021 to January this year. She previously worked as a paralegal.

She lists all her social media accounts to the Liberal Party on the from dated March 10, before her entire history was wiped just days before Scott Morrison shocked the Liberal Party by announcing her as a “captains pick”.

In November last year Ms Deves presented a prestigious journalism award. Picture: Kennedy Awards / Facebook

On Friday, she banned media from a Politics in the Pub event. Picture: KHAPGG/Backgrid/news.com.au

The Prime Minister, who is resisting calls to dump Ms Deves, insists the comments are “in the past.”

In fact, all of the social media posts were the last two years and many were less than a year ago.

They include claims surrogacy is “a human rights violation” that trans teenagers are “surgically mutilated” and that there’s a link between transvestism and sexual predators, even serial killers.

The nomination form also confirms her candidacy was proposed by barrister Bridie Nolan, the now wife of her opponent Zali Steggall’s ex-husband.

While some have described Ms Deves as conservative, in fact she is a self-described TERF – trans exclusionary radical feminist.

The term “The Rainbow Reich” is often used in TERF online communities to suggest the trans movement is totalitarian in nature and is destroying the LGBTI community.

Ms Deves is a self-described TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist). Picture: Jane Dempster/The Australian

Ms Deves has also repeatedly referenced the late radical feminist Andrea Dworkin, a Jewish anti-pornography campaigner and rape survivor.

Ms Dworkin, one of the world’s most famous and influential radical feminists in the 1980s is famous for saying: “I really believe a woman has the right to execute a man who has raped her” and that “sexual intercourse remains a means, or the means, of physiologically making a woman inferior: communicating to her, cell by cell, her own inferior status … pushing and thrusting until she gives in.”

News.com.au does not suggest Ms Deves supports these statements.

Meanwhile, The Saturday Telegraph has revealed that Ms Deves explicitly declared to Liberal Party officials how she had been involved in “controversial issues” that could become a part of the federal election campaign ahead of her selection as a Warringah candidate.

However, in response to a question on the form about social media posts, Ms Deves, who states she was a Liberal Party member in 2011, 2017 and “applied on September 21, 2021”, denied making any “extreme or offensive” comments.

Ms Deves told the Liberal Party in a nomination form that she has never posted anything online that was offensive in nature.

The application form, obtained by The Saturday Telegraph, has triggered questions among moderate Liberals over whether selectors had missed what might have been seen as the red flags in Ms Deves’ ­application in their haste to lock in a smart and photogenic candidate, or whether they were aware and supportive.

Ms Deves also disclosed in her party nomination form her user names for social media accounts that she had held along with her membership of the Coalition for Biological Reality, the Feminist Legal Clinic and women and girls sex-based rights group IWD Brisbane-Meanjin.

She did explicitly declare to Liberal Party officials she had been involved in “controversial issues”.

Ms Deves emerged at a fiery politics in the pub event in Sydney on Friday where minders banned the media.

Ms Deves — who has made headlines over the past few weeks due to her social media posts on trans people — was billed to speak at Forestville RSL in Northern Sydney alongside fellow Liberal Jason Falinski, the Member for Mackellar.

The event was billed as a “Politics at the Pub” event, but news.com.au was soon advised after arriving that it was a “no media event” and that it was in fact “invite only” — despite there being no mention of this on the event flyer.

A staffer at the RSL said they had been instructed by the Liberal party not to let media in.

“They are all for freedom of speech, just as long as it’s Liberal party speech,” he quipped.

The media were told by a Liberal staffer to wait outside, where Ms Deves would be making a statement on her way in.

Almost 30 minutes after the event was scheduled to begin, Ms Deves’ white escort vehicle sped quickly towards the entrance of the building.

Stopping just short of the door, she walked quickly out and made the following statement.

“I have fought for women and children and now I’m fighting for Warringah. Thank you for coming along tonight. I’m looking forward to campaigning hard over the next four weeks and on the issues that affect the people in the room.”

— with Ben Graham

Originally published as Secret docs lift the lid on Katherine Deves’ past