Rita Panahi: The biggest winner in this entire shemozzle is the Victorian Labor Party

John Pesutto has made failure an art form, and if he had any sense, honour or even just a modicum of political nous he’d step down now before he inflicts further damage on the Liberal Party.

To make one female colleague cry may be considered a misfortune, to reduce two to tears may mean your name is John Pesutto.

The hapless Liberal leader has made failure an art form during his short reign and now stands accused of bullying two first-term female MPs, one of whom is taking legal action against him.

If Pesutto had any sense, honour or even just a modicum of political nous he’d step down now before he inflicts further damage on a party that has for too long been an unelectable rabble.

But in what is quickly becoming known as “pulling a Pesutto”, he is doubling down and exacerbating an already terrible predicament, one entirely of his own making.

On Thursday he refused to negotiate with Moira Deeming, one of the women he has unfairly attacked, sparking another round of internal wars.

Pesutto has sparked another round of internal wars after refusing to negotiate with Moira Deeming. Picture: Luis Ascui

All he had to do to avoid further infighting was to acknowledge his obvious mistake in attacking Deeming for attending a women’s rights rally and for relying on false Wikipedia and social media entries to malign her and the event’s organisers.

Frankly, Pesutto should count himself lucky that he is not being sued by Let Women Speak organisers Kellie-Jay Keen and Angela Jones.

The other female colleague Pesutto has recently reduced to tears is Renee Heath, who was berated by the diminutive leader and accused of leaking the minutes of a party room meeting to Sky News’ Peta Credlin.

A lie that Credlin called out on air Tuesday evening. “I can say to you right now, Renee Heath did not give me any information about the minutes – the allegation today from Pesutto is completely false,” Credlin said.

Pesutto should step down now. Picture: Luis Ascui

“Suffice to say, I have been around the Liberal Party my whole adult life, and I know how to ask the right questions of the right people and check the facts.”

The biggest winner in this entire shemozzle is the Victorian Labor Party, and wasn’t Dan Andrews having fun at the expense of Pesutto in parliament this week: “I would’ve thought the leader of the opposition was a bit brave to be lecturing anybody on personal behaviour today, of all days, if I were you I’d stick to abusing women in your party room,” Andrews said.

Premier Andrews is arguably the luckiest politician in the world. Despite Victoria drowning in record debt, considerably higher than any other state, and his government being mired in multiple scandals, there is no doubt that he would win another election in a landslide if it were held today.

That’s what happens when the opposition is so weak and unprincipled that they stand for nothing.

Victorians saw that Pesutto was Matthew Guy 2.0 when he disgracefully attacked his own MP, Deeming, after she was physically attacked at a women’s rights rally that was gatecrashed by hundreds of far Left protesters and around two dozen cos-playing Nazis.

Instead of taking a stand for the rights of girls and women, Pesutto opted to be Dan’s useful idiot siding with the hate mob who sought to blame women’s rights campaigners for the actions of Nazi-loving men.

Pesutto disgracefully attacked Deeming after she was physically attacked at a women’s rights rally. Picture: David Crosling

As I wrote at the time he was a dead man walking from that moment unless he was man enough to acknowledge that he got it badly wrong.

Instead, he is plotting another expulsion move against Deeming who demanded a statement of exoneration and for her leader to stick to the original deal they had negotiated.

In an email obtained by the Herald Sun she wrote: “As I have made clear from the day John emailed the entire party room with the allegations against me, my principle priority has been to have my name cleared for the sake of my children.

“And that is what I was promised in the party room. Kim Wells negotiated with you all and persuaded me to accept a nine month suspension to save John’s leadership, in exchange for exoneration from all allegations and imputations made against me (and automatic reinstatement). “

“And I accepted those terms in desperation, just to get my family’s name cleared. But instead, as is well documented, leadership went right out and did the opposite, continuously, right up until this very week.”

“If by 2pm today (Thursday), we do not have an agreed upon statement that exonerates me from the charges laid against me … I will be forced to challenge (the suspension), demand re-entry to the party room and instruct my lawyers to commence legal proceedings.”

After the deadline was missed Deeming confirmed that she had advised her lawyers to prepare a legal challenge over her suspension.

In the short term Andrews is the big winner from the Vic Liberals’ harakiri, but the biggest long term losers are the Victorian public who do not have a strong opposition to keep the government accountable and have no real choice at the ballot box.

This is a disaster for our state.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist