‘Shooting ourselves in head’ on Moira Deeming, John Pesutto was warned
Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto was warned by multiple party allies over trying to expel MP Moira Deeming | Read the leaked partyroom minutes.
Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto was warned by a party veteran and ally that his move to expel MP Moira Deeming was tantamount to “shooting ourselves in the head”, according to leaked minutes of a March 27 partyroom meeting.
The leaking of the minutes from the meeting at which Liberals ultimately agreed on the compromise of suspending Ms Deeming for nine months comes after the activist indicated she will take legal action against Mr Pesutto.
Leaking of the minutes from the meeting at which the Liberals ultimately agreed on a compromise of suspending Ms Deeming for nine months comes after the activist wrote to colleagues indicating she will take legal action against Mr Pesutto.
“I am now in a position where continued silence is damaging my name and reputation, my family and my mental health,” Ms Deeming said, claiming Mr Pesutto had failed to meet a 2pm deadline on Thursday to exonerate her after linking her to Nazis.”
Amid the threat to his leaderhip, Mr Pesutto denied ever having accused Ms Deeming of being a Nazi or having Nazi sympathies, and said he was unconcerned by the legal threat.
“If Moira Deeming is going to take action to sue me and effectively the parliamentary Liberal Party ... that would be a matter for her to consider. She’s free to do what she wants, I’m focused on holding the Andrews government to account,” Mr Pesutto declared.
The March meeting minutes show another senior Liberal told the opposition leader that the effect of the expulsion motion would be to label Ms Deeming “as a Nazi”, which was “like calling someone a murderer, a rapist, or a paedophile”, while a third said he believed that behaviour on both Mr Pesutto’s side of the argument and Ms Deeming’s had been “absolutely appalling”.
The meeting followed the attendance of Ms Deeming — who campaigns against what she sees as the infringement of transgender rights upon those of women — at a “Let Women Speak” rally alongside British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, former federal Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, and left-wing Jewish feminist Angie Jones, and the gatecrashing of that rally by Nazis.
Mr Pesutto acknowledged on Thursday that a dossier — which was circulated to the media by his office and attempted to link Ms Parker with Nazis and other right wing extremists had “formed the basis for the motion” to expel Ms Deeming.
However, he also said: “nothing in the dossier ever accused Moira Deeming of being a Nazi or having Nazi sympathies.”
Criticism of Mr Pesutto at the March meeting by known internal enemies will come as no surprise, but harsh words from senior and respected colleagues including Baillieu treasurer Kim Wells, veteran Liberal staffer-turned-MP Nick McGowan, and long term frontbencher David Hodgett demonstrate the discomfort within the party at the way in which he went about attempting to expel Ms Deeming.
“I don‘t know whether I’m sad or angry to have gotten to this point. After the last loss I thought we were taking a new direction. Instead of shooting ourselves in the foot — we are shooting ourselves in the head,” Mr Wells said.
“We don’t respect everyone’s views. I thought that’s what the Liberal Party was all about. I cannot believe how badly this has been handled, John.”
Mr McGowan said: “If this motion is successful today, you are actually labelling someone a Nazi. Moira is going to have to live with that. It’s like calling someone a murderer, a rapist, or a paedophile ... If Moira had been told that she couldn’t go to the rally and she did, I might be able to support this motion — but that didn’t happen.”
Mr Hodgett said he could “not believe” that the 31 Liberals in the partyroom could not find “a sensible way forward”.
“I urge that we find a sensible way forward. Some of the behaviour on both sides was absolutely appalling,” he said.
The copy of the minutes leaked to The Australian is understood to be the third draft produced by junior MP Renee Heath and circulated to MPs at a partyroom meeting on Tuesday, at which party members carried Mr Pesutto’s motion not to accept them.
Mr Pesutto on Thursday said his reason for refusing to accept the minutes was that “three different versions” which were “factually different in some respects” had been prepared.
“What the partyroom did was ... it said ‘bring back a form of minutes that reconciles those matters, right, and deals with those issues’, and we’re doing that,” the Liberal leader said.
Mr Pesutto refused to say what the “factual differences” between the versions were.
Sent a complete version of the minutes which were leaked to the Australian, a spokesman for Mr Pesutto declined the opportunity to dispute any specific aspect of them, saying only: “We don’t comment on internal partyroom meetings.”
In an email sent to colleagues immediately after Tuesday’s meeting, in which she accused Mr Pesutto of having bullied her, Ms Heath stated that the three versions had only arisen because she had needed to correct “spelling mistakes and double ups” in the first version, and add comment from MP Anne Marie Hermans which had inadvertently been left out of the first two versions.
The minutes reflect Mr Pesutto calling for Liberals to show Victorians they are “reliable and focused”.
“Unless we take this step we are proposing today, we cannot do that. We will not be seen as a viable option,” he said.
“It‘s only been a short time since I have had the pleasure of leading and we have started to make gains. Every time we get a run and start landing blows, we get drawn away from it and that is serious. It leads to brand damage.
“I want to assure you that I do firmly believe that there is space in the Liberal Party for a whole range of views. ... The decision that I am asking you to take today as a collective is leadership. This is a tough decision, there is nothing personal in it. ...This is the first of many tough decisions we are going to have to make if we want to win.”
Frontbencher Richard Riordan said Mr Pesutto’s motion had essentially raised the two issues of “neo Nazi sympathies and hate against the trans community.”
“Neither have been able to be proven. We cannot kick her out of the partyroom on two unjustifiable lies,” he said.
“Moira’s legal case against us is massively strong. If we are going to get rid of a strong, young woman that has joined our ranks, I am devastated at the consequences of this motion.”
Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick, who is Jewish, said that while he did not believe Moira “is a Nazi”, he was not sufficiently satisfied that she, Ms Keen, Ms Deves and Ms Jones had sufficiently distanced themselves from the Nazis who had gatecrashed the rally, citing a filmed conversation on a couch following the rally’s conclusion.
“I don’t think Moira is a Nazi. I haven’t said that I will not say that. She is not in any way, but we are Members of Parliament. When something is wrong, we need to do what is needed to be able to fix it,” Mr Southwick said.
“I don’t accept that sitting on the couch talking about conspiracy theories is calling that out. If the Nazis hadn’t showed up, we wouldn’t be in this room.”
Mr Southwick also made reference to Ms Keen having once used a Barbie doll dressed in a Nazi uniform as her social media profile picture.
“What should have happened on that couch is “there were Nazis that crashed a rally”. Those Nazi(s) weren’t coming after Jews, they were coming after trans. It’s not about Jews. It’s about anyone who is not them. We are MP’s who need to call it out,” he said.
Liberal Legislative Council leader Georgie Crozier also stood by Mr Pesutto saying: “This isn‘t about a women’s issue, it’s not about freedom of speech, this is a pattern. There is a pattern of defiance and not taking advice. I am sorry about that Moira because I have come to you and wanted to help you and nothing. This is about leadership.”
Ms Crozier’s deputy Matt Bach similarly urged his colleagues to support Mr Pesutto’s motion, saying: “I have found this so incredibly hard. I found last weekend that this is a necessary step. We cannot be wedded to extremists.”
An attachment to the minutes details the speech Ms Deeming gave which ultimately persuaded her colleagues to suspend rather than expel her.
In the speech, she makes reference to her life having “been marred repeatedly by rape — at the hands of men — from the age of four”, claiming her reasons for campaigning at rallies such as “Let Women Speak” are “completely and utterly based on love and compassion, not any sort of bigotry — and not even on religion or conservative politics.”
“I have supporters who are happily transgender and supporters who are grateful detransitioners,” she said.
“I am driven by a desire to make sure other children and women don’t suffer like I did. That’s all.”
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