Pesutto’s leadership hanging by a thread after deadlocked Deeming vote

John Pesutto’s leadership is on the line after a coalition of political allies and opponents urged him to step down in the wake of a deadlocked vote to return exiled MP Moira Deeming to the Liberal party room.

Several members of a shell-shocked Victorian Liberal parliamentary team on Friday began urging Pesutto to step down after the vote narrowly went down on a tie that required the opposition leader to use his casting vote.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto (centre) speaks with the media after Friday’s meeting.Credit: Justin McManus

Groups of MPs met with Pesutto throughout the afternoon, with allies informing him he needed to consider his position because the narrow vote had cost him the support of key backers.

Three MPs said opposition police spokesman Brad Battin and finance spokeswoman Jess Wilson were being pushed as a leadership team to unite the left and right of the divided party room.

One MP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters, said Pesutto had been told he had 24 hours to step down or he would face a challenge. Five MPs would again need to petition for another extraordinary party room meeting in order to move a spill.

Pesutto has been contacted for comment.

Moira Deeming (centre) outside the Federal Court this month, following her win in the defamation trial.Credit: AAP

Deeming on Friday said she was “deeply disappointed” with the result but declared it was only a matter of time before she received an apology from Pesutto and was reinstated into the parliamentary party after her defamation win over the Liberal leader in the Federal Court last week.

She said she would continue advocating for Liberal values, and thanked the MPs and party members who have supported her.

“I was elected a Liberal and remain a proud Liberal member, and I know that with their continuing support, I will get the apology that’s owed to me and that it is only a matter of time before I return to the party room,” Deeming said in a statement.

Credit: Matt Golding

“Regrettably, as has been the case from the beginning, John Pesutto’s inability to admit his mistakes speaks volumes about his character and fitness for our state’s highest office.”

The party room on Friday briefly debated whether Deeming could be reinstated to the team under a new code of conduct, but that did not progress to a vote, two sources told The Age.

Pesutto used his casting vote to end the stalemate, meaning the push to reinstate Deeming was defeated 15-14. However, there was debate in the party room meeting whether his casting vote was needed to end the deadlock and the meaning of an “absolute majority” when two of the 30 MPs, Cindy McLeish and Nick McGowan, were away. In any case, the vote failed and Deeming will remain on the crossbench.

Multiple MPs who supported the motion to return Deeming without qualification told reporters on Friday that the tight vote ensured it was not possible to repair instability despite Pesutto’s insistence the matter was over.

“This concludes the matter,” Pesutto said, a point he has tried to make repeatedly since he first attempted to expel Deeming, in March 2023.

Agitating members of his party room said this could not be the case. “It’s just the start of it,” one Liberal said on condition of anonymity. “His leadership is finished.”

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said on social media site X the vote was “a shameful result” and contemptible.

“How can someone elected as a Liberal be expelled on the basis of a lie and not be readmitted once the truth is out there for all to see? Especially right before Christmas, the season of goodwill, this is truly contemptible.”

Ann-Marie Hermans, who voted to reinstate Deeming, said she thought the drawn-out saga would continue.

MP Ann-Marie Hermans speaks after the vote to keep Deeming out of the Liberal party room.Credit: Justin McManus

“I, personally, don’t think we have resolved it by having such a close vote,” she told reporters.

Chris Crewther, another Deeming supporter, said he hoped the leadership team would reconsider.

“It will be hard to unite,” Crewther said. “We had the opportunity to make this no longer a distraction.”

Shadow minister Richard Riordan, one of the five MPs who petitioned for Friday’s meeting, said he was flabbergasted.

Liberal MP Chris Crewther speaks to the media after Friday’s meeting.Credit: Justin McManus

“We are in a worse position than we were to start with, in the sense it’s not resolved, our party room is split down the middle,” he said.

Both camps were attempting to find out who flipped after the tighter-than-expected result. A 16-12 vote was expected to go Pesutto’s way.

Some of Pesutto’s backers earlier believed his leadership was still safe but conceded he should have offered some contrition following his emphatic defamation loss to Deeming. Federal Court Justice David O’Callaghan last week found Pesutto defamed Deeming as a Nazi sympathiser in the days after the Let Women Speak rally she helped organise in March 2023.

Liberal MP Richard Riordan in September.Credit: Jason South

Pesutto, whose fortunes have improved in the polls over the last 12 months, earlier rejected that Friday’s result weakened his leadership.

“Everybody is committed to doing the very best we can in Prahran and Werribee, the byelections we have in only a few weeks’ time,” he said.

Bev McArthur, who wore a scarf that read “Woman Adult Human Female” for Friday’s meeting in a display of support for Deeming, said the leadership team did not offer any concessions to concerned MPs during the debate. She said a leader would apologise for their mistakes and fix them.

“I thought the situation was untenable after Justice O’Callaghan’s very emphatic defamation decision … All that was left to do was to bring Moira back into the party room where she was before. Effectively, a lie was created to eject her.”

He said he was considering a reshuffle, after Premier Jacinta Allan overhauled her cabinet, but would not say whether Riordan could be demoted from his frontbench after putting his name to the petition to seek a meeting.

Former opposition leader Matthew Guy after Friday’s meeting.Credit: Justin McManus

Riordan said he was busy in the housing portfolio and emergency services as the fire season gets under way.

“It is not about who is in shadow cabinet and who is not,” he said. “It is about us sending a message to Victorians that we care about integrity, that we care about honesty [and] that we care about making sure that we set the highest possible standards in government.

“The people of Victoria, Liberal Party members and supporters of good, honest, fair government would have expected we could make a decision that was clear-cut,” he said. “It is a simple right or wrong. We made a mistake, we need to fix it.“

Bill Tilley, who moved the motion to reinstate Deeming, said Pesutto was a strong leader but needed to face up to his mistakes.

“You’ve got to fess up and own it.”

One party source, who requested confidentiality to discuss internal matters, said the parliamentary team “should sit down and shut up”.

“The total ineptitude of the state party is on display today, the only thing they can do right and not by design or motive, is damage the chances of the federal party.”

The federal election is due by May, while two state byelections are expected early in the new year. The latest Resolve Political Monitor reported last month Pesutto narrowly overtaking Allan as preferred premier among voters.

Another party source said Pesutto was repeatedly ignoring the wishes of rank and file members.

Tilley, Riordan, Renee Heath, Joe McCracken and Crewther had pushed for the meeting, the first full gathering of Liberal MPs since Pesutto lost the defamation trial.

Before the vote, opposition employment spokesman David Hodgett said he believed there was a pathway for Deeming’s return but that the five MPs behind the meeting had gone about it the wrong way.

“We should have spent the week prosecuting Tim Pallas’ record as treasurer and other issues affecting the state,” he said. “They’ve probably done Moira a disservice.”

MP Bev McArthur says the Liberals’ leadership team hasn’t offered any concessions.Credit: Justin McManus

While Pesutto and Deeming have agreed on their share of costs for the case – with the opposition leader to pay about 90 per cent of Deeming’s legal bill incurred after her February settlement offer – the exact amount owed is being furiously contested.

Sources familiar with negotiations say her cost claims are close to $3 million. Pesutto’s lawyers have served her with a notice to disclose the money she received from supporters.

They will argue that if Deeming has already raised enough money to pay her legal bills and has no obligation to refund her donors, she is not entitled to any costs from Pesutto.

The move is likely to result in Deeming’s lawyers issuing a similar notice for Pesutto to disclose the identity of his donors and the amount they tipped into his fighting fund.

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