The Liberal party has made an art form of focusing on itself

John Pesutto has bitten the bullet early on Moira Deeming and is keen to send a message he’s reforming the Liberal Party, but it may backfire.

Will they ever learn?

The Victorian Liberals should have spent this week challenging the Andrews government over a range of corruption issues.

Instead, they will spend it talking about Moira Deeming and themselves.

Who knows what was going through the minds of those inside Liberal HQ when the statement announcing moves to expel Deeming was issued at 8.42pm on Sunday.

The Liberals will spend the week talking about Moira Deeming and themselves. Picture: Sarah Matray

Until then there had been much discussion and media coverage of Saturday’s Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by a group of neo-Nazis. Almost none of it mentioned Deeming. But this is a party that has made an art form of focusing on themselves.

The party’s attention this week should have been on prosecuting government corruption. On Wednesday, the upper house will vote to establish a select committee to probe concerns of government corruption raised by former IBAC chief Robert Redlich.

Under the proposal, witnesses would be called in a bid to prove claims of government interference over the parliament’s Integrity and Oversight Committee. Mr Redlich has explicitly accused the government of launching revenge attacks on IBAC in retaliation to a series of probes into its dealings.

The opposition needs to secure seven votes to get the motion over the line. It is confident it has the support of the four Greens MPs, meaning there are just three more votes needed. One Nation’s Ricki-Lee Tyrrell has said she will support “any inquiry into alleged corruption within our governing bodies”. That leaves just two more votes. It shouldn’t be hard.

There was almost no mention of Moira Deeming in the initial media coverage of Saturday’s rally. Picture: David Crosling

It will be the first major test of the new look upper house that has lost government-friendly MPs in Fiona Patten and Andy Meddick.

Pesutto’s problem is that even if Deeming is booted from the parliamentary wing of the party, sources say there’s no appetite to expel her from the broader party.

Whatever you think of her views, Deeming enjoys a vast amount of grassroots support.

Booting her from the party won’t eradicate that support, or the views of those inclined to offer that support. This is a broader Liberal brand issue that Pesutto is taking on.

Having only narrowly won the party leadership by a single vote in December, he has now set a huge test of his own leadership. Just a month ago Pesutto himself was throwing his support behind Deeming.

Opposition leader John Pesutto thew his support behind Deeming a month ago. Picture: Aaron Francis

The party knew what they were getting with Deeming, complete with ultra-conservative views on topics such as abortion and trans rights. Some Liberals dubbed her “Bernie without a penis” – a crude reference to the man she replaced in the upper house. Finn remained a thorn in the side of the Liberals for years, flitting nonchalantly between controversies.

Both former leaders Matthew Guy and Michael O’Brien had been eager on more than one occasion to boot hit from the party.

But they knew it came with grave political risk. The last thing any leader wants to do is to take a stance and then be seen to be weak when they can’t follow through.

When Finn broke party ranks to advocate for a winding back of abortion laws last May, Guy bit the bullet. After issuing Finn with an ultimatum to fall into line or leave the party, Guy ultimately backed a push to expel him from the party.

Pesutto has bitten the bullet early, keen to avoid a Bernie 2.0 situation. It’s also clear he’s keen to send a strong message he’s reforming the Liberal Party, and able to make the tough decisions to do it. You can’t do that by saying it, you need to live it.

More moderate Liberals firmly believe Pesutto had no choice but to act in a bid to appeal to mainstream Victoria who oppose Deeming’s views.

It could hurt him. It might even kill him. But Pesutto has picked the hill he’s willing to die on.