Transgender councillor Tosh-Jake Finnigan defends Moira Deeming and condemns Liberal leader John Pesutto

Tosh-Jake Finnigan says it’s ‘clear as day’ that expelled Liberal Moira Deeming does not harbour ‘some deep underlying hatred for trans people’.

L-R: Victorian Liberal MP Joe McCracken, One Nation MP Riki-Lee Tyrrell, expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming, transgender Colac councillor Tosh-Jake Finnigan, and Liberal MPs Bev McArthur and Renee Heath.

A transgender councillor says Opposition Leader John Pesutto’s treatment of expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming and fellow conservative Liberal Renee Heath is an “indictment of the direction of the Liberal Party in Victoria”.

Colac-Otways councillor, music store owner and former Labor staffer turned Redshirts whistleblower Tosh-Jake Finnigan met with Mrs Deeming, Ms Heath and fellow conservative Liberals at state parliament last week, and says it’s “clear as day” that neither woman harbours “some deep underlying hatred for transgender people”.

Cr Finnigan’s comments come after Mrs Deeming was last month expelled from the parliamentary Liberal Party after speaking at a March “Let Women Speak” rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

Liberal MP Moira Deeming. Picture: Ian Currie

The protest was organised by British feminist activist Kellie-Jay Keen’s group Standing for Women UK, which campaigns against what its supporters see as the infringement of transgender rights upon those of women and children.

Ms Heath was also stood down as Liberal Party secretary last month, following a dispute over minutes she had taken of the March Liberal party room meeting at which Mrs Deeming was suspended after Mr Pesutto’s initial attempt to expel her failed.

Mrs Deeming is now suing Mr Pesutto for defamation, alleging the Opposition Leader accused her of being a “Nazi sympathiser and Nazi associate”, and used that as a basis to “threaten and bully” her.

In a public Facebook post addressed to Mrs Deeming over the weekend, Cr Finnigan said it had been “great to sit down” with her, Ms Heath, fellow Liberals Bev McArthur and Nick McGowan and One Nation MP Rikki-Lee Tyrrell at state parliament last Thursday.

“Obviously we have disagreements on issues of policy, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to sit down and listen to each other’s concerns and see if there isn’t common ground and a middle path to be charted,” Cr Finnigan said.

“The reality is, all that the current political standard operating procedure of screaming at and demonising those who even mildly disagree with us achieves is further division, pushing opposite sides of arguments even further to the left and right.

“If I were to believe the narrative surrounding the beliefs of yourself (Mrs Deeming) and Renee (Heath), I would be expected to denounce both of you as horrific transphobes and homophobes, but the reality is that after sitting down to discuss our differences in opinion and to understand why each of us hold these opinions, it’s clear as day to me that neither of you are evil, malicious, or nasty, nor do either of you harbour some deep underlying hatred for transgender people.

Tosh-Jake Finnigan (right) has been elected to Colac Otway Shire Council, and claims to be the first trans-identifying councillor in the state. Cr Finnigan is pictured with the council's chief executive Anne Howard. Picture: Colac Otway Shire Council.

“That both yourself and Renee have been treated so poorly and denounced as terrible people by the leadership of your own party is an indictment of the direction of the Liberal Party in Victoria.

“If Messrs John Pesutto, (Deputy Liberal leader) David Southwick, (Upper House Liberal leader) Georgie Crozier and (Deputy Upper House Liberal Leader) Matt Bach (were) actually concerned with your alleged hatred towards transgender people rather than just seeking to shore up their numbers in the party room, perhaps they would have spoken to the only transgender elected official in Victoria to see what the party could do to address the issue, but instead, the very MPs they have decried as transphobic and homophobic were the ones to reach out and sit down to see what we can do to bring people together.”

Cr Finnigan thanked Liberal MP and former fellow Colac-Otways councillor Joe McCracken for setting up the meeting, describing Mr McCracken as a “great mate”.

“I’m looking forward to the many to come in future,” Cr Finnigan said.

In February, Mr McCracken, a former teacher, became the first Victorian MP to use an inaugural speech to come out as gay, using the opportunity to decry identity politics and defining a person by “one aspect” of their character, pledging to “fight against that whenever I can.”

Mrs Deeming said she had found to Cr Finnigan “lovely” and been “very moved about all the troubles — some not too dissimilar to my own — that Tosh has triumphed over.

“I’ve learned the hard way that many of those — who should know better — would rather curl up into as small a ball as possible to hide among the crowd and fling dogmatic and hateful lines at people like me,” Mrs Deeming said.

“But Tosh is different. Tosh shared and listened and was empathetic about the concerns women and girls have about losing single sex spaces and rights.

“Tosh actually cares about women and children, and I’m so grateful for the public support.”

Mr Pesutto’s office has been contacted for comment.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that Cr Finnigan has lodged a discrimination complain with the Victorian equal opportunity and human rights commission after being blocked from running in Amnesty International elections.