Warring Victorian Liberals set for a grand final clash

As Victorians prepare to kick into the long weekend AFL grand final party, warring Liberals will be tackling each other in the Supreme Court.

Moira Deeming and John Pesutto.

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As Victorians prepare to kick into the long weekend AFL grand final party, warring Liberals will be tackling each other in the Supreme Court.

In a development confirming the damaging Pesutto-Deeming crisis will drag on for at least two more months, rival factions will front the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday, September 25, the day before the grand final public holiday and two days before footy’s biggest celebration.

A Supreme Court hearing set for Wednesday has been vacated and a directions hearing locked in for grand final week as a splinter group of party chiefs attempts to scuttle the administrative committee’s $1.55m bailout of former leader John Pesutto.

The two-year civil war has been ripping the Liberals apart and the timing of the next court hearing means that just as Victorians are enjoying a week-long celebration of footy, the party will again be making headlines by fighting each other.

Supreme Court documents list five Liberal figures led by administrative committee member Colleen Harkin as the plaintiffs in the attempt to block the deal, and names 17 Liberals as defendants including party president Phil Davis, former Victorian treasurer and party official Alan Stockdale, opposition leader Brad Battin, MP Moira Deeming and federal Liberal MP Dan Tehan.

Vapold Pty Ltd, the party’s cashed-up investment firm that provided the $1.55m lifeline, has also been named as a defendant.

The court has directed that both parties attend a mediation hearing on September 12 and the mediator has been given one week to try to resolve the dispute.

“The mediation must be attended by those persons who have ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to settle the dispute and the terms of any settlement,” the court papers state.

The Liberal Party’s governing administrative committee last month voted in favour of a $1.55m loan to Mr Pesutto to help him settle his $2.3m debt to Ms Deeming over her successful defamation action against him.

Moira Deeming and John Pesutto in 2023. Picture: Facebook

This week’s Newspoll, published in The Australian, underlines the damage the Pesutto-Deeming saga is causing the party.

While 59 per cent of Victorians do not believe the Allan Labor government deserves to be re-elected next year, 60 per cent of voters do not believe the Liberals are ready to govern.

The Mr Pesutto said he was “grateful and humbled” by the loan which, combined with about $760,000 he has personally raised, will clear the debt and prevent him being declared bankrupt, a move that would force him from parliament and trigger a potentially damaging by-election in Hawthorn.

With the legal action launched to undo the deal it is believed the money is sitting in a trust account and has not been paid.

In the wake of last month’s $1.55m bailout, Mrs Deeming likened her treatment by the party to “institutional abuse”.

Taking to X shortly after the party’s decision, Mrs Deeming posted a photo of herself with a caption stating the Liberals had “failed to protect her when she was attacked”, “punished her for defending herself”, “financially profited off her trauma” and falsely claimed they had done her a “favour”.

“This is what institutional abuse looks like,” the image reads.

Mr Battin supported the deal in a bid to finally end the saga which is undermining the party’s standing among voters.

Mrs Deeming successfully sued Mr Pesutto in the Federal Court over allegations he falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser after she helped organise and attended a Let Women Speak rally gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.