The best thing that can be said for anti-trans activist and Liberal MP Moira Deeming is that she has terrible political judgment.
The net effect of sharing a platform with Kellie-Jay Keen – aka Posie Parker – is that Deeming has dragged her party and herself into a Neo-Nazi scandal.
Deeming has every right to speak freely and openly about her views on transgender issues, not the least because there are matters worthy of public debate.
But she failed several key tests of judgment, the most serious being her failure to immediately and loudly repudiate the presence of the 30 or so Neo-Nazis that protested near her group at the weekend.
Liberal leader John Pesutto’s letter to Deeming is a demolition of her decision to campaign alongside Keen.
Keen is free to defend her position, but the broader question is why a Liberal MP would think that being a key part of that anti-transgender protest was a smart thing to do.
Deeming let down the Liberal Party.
Attempts were made to properly school the political newbie on how to progress her message in a long-term, sustainable fashion that could have advanced the party’s cause.
Instead, her Liberal career is now in ashes.
Some senior Liberals are privately scathing of the decision to dump Deeming, arguing state leader John Pesutto has gone too far and should have done more to defend the right to free speech.
Despite this, MPs believe the vote to rid the parliamentary party of Deeming will pass with a safe enough majority.
Pesutto is trying to define the party and instill moral and ethical boundaries at the same time as control his political agenda.
No matter what Deeming says in protest, her weekend activism was defined by the presence of the neo-Nazis.
On Pesutto’s reasoning, it was no great shock that the extremists materialised.
This is what makes backing Deeming difficult for her internal supporters.
Seventy-eight years after the end of World War II, Pesutto is fundamentally arguing that the Liberal Party should never forget the Holocaust history.
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