John Pesutto to face leadership spill on Friday

John Pesutto’s days as Liberal leader appear numbered after five shadow cabinet ministers forced a party room meeting on Friday to decide his fate.

The opposition leader had made a last-ditch effort on Sunday to save his job by making a shock concession and agreeing to readmit exiled MP and defamation foe Moira Deeming to the party.

However, his challengers say it’s too little, too late, with the push to oust him culminating with a letter – signed by key Pesutto ally James Newbury – calling a meeting on Friday where a spill will be pushed. The meeting later this week will include a vote over Deeming’s membership.

John Pesutto made a last-ditch effort to save his job on Sunday, but was later trumped by MPs plotting his downfall.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The move means the group backing shadow police minister Brad Battin is confident they have the numbers. Signatories include Newbury, housing spokesman Richard Riordan, recently resigned frontbencher Sam Groth and opposition spokesperson for industry Bridget Vallence.

As plotters spent the weekend hashing out a new leadership team that could win the majority support of the party room, Pesutto sought to buy himself time and neutralise a key point of contention by pushing to readmit Deeming himself.

Five Liberal MPs, speaking anonymously to detail internal conversations, said the situation was a mess.

One said Pesutto’s efforts to save his leadership had come too late. Another said the move had weakened his position further with moderate colleagues who had backed him in voting against Deeming.

“Anyone who believes they’ve got the numbers isn’t going to wait around for John’s invitation. They will move straightaway,” one MP said.

In his note to MPs, Pesutto called a party room meeting for January 15 to “discuss and vote on a motion moved by me to readmit Mrs Moira Deeming to the parliamentary Liberal Party”.

He also issued a statement publicly apologising to Deeming, to whom a Federal Court judge ordered he pay $300,000 in damages for defaming her as having knowingly associated with neo-Nazis.

“It has become clear that there is now a definite absolute majority of colleagues who want this issue resolved with Mrs Deeming’s readmission so that we can collectively put this behind us and concentrate on the Prahran and Werribee byelections and holding the Allan Labor government to account,” Pesutto said.

Moira Deeming at the Federal Court in October.Credit: Joe Armao

“I again apologise to Mrs Deeming as we all work together to ensure the Liberal Party succeeds in winning government in November 2026.”

The motion called for Deeming to be admitted effectively immediately. It also asked for further discussion within the party room on establishing a “code of conduct” to “govern the behaviour of all members of the parliamentary Liberal Party”.

The move was a stunning about-face for Pesutto who first sought to expel Deeming from his party room in March 2023 before she was successfully voted out two months later.

The January 15 meeting would have seen Pesutto not only vote for Deeming’s return but be the person introducing the motion that would reinstate her, if successful.

On Friday, he used his casting vote in a 14-all deadlock to vote against her readmission and declared the matter closed.

Seven sources said Pesutto was asked after Friday’s vote to consider his position by a group of key backers including finance spokeswoman Jess Wilson, shadow treasurer Brad Rowswell and shadow Attorney-General Michael O’Brien after the narrow result in the party room.

A new leadership ticket with Battin and Wilson was being negotiated in a proposal to unite the party’s left and right factions, but opinions were sharply split over who would be deputy in this scenario.

On Sunday, three Liberal sources said Battin’s camp was prepared to call a spill without the need for the votes of Wilson’s backers. They were confident they could convince MPs who’d been aligned to Pesutto to join their side, essentially shutting out those pushing for Wilson to be leader.

Pesutto on Saturday had said he was determined to fight on and would be willing to offer Deeming an apology in person.

A source with direct knowledge of discussions said an intermediary had approached Deeming, but no direct contact had been made and she was unlikely to accept any of the apologies Pesutto had made so far.

The internal turmoil was reignited by the 250-page defamation judgment earlier this month that savaged Pesutto over his time in the witness box and found he had injured the MP’s reputation by repeatedly and falsely implying that she knowingly associated with neo-Nazis.

Deeming on Friday said she was “deeply disappointed” with the party room vote, but declared it was only a matter of time before she received an apology from Pesutto and was reinstated.

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