Controversial Victorian parliamentarian Moira Deeming has been dumped from the Liberal Party’s upper house ticket in a hard-fought ballot that threatens to end her political career.
But the loss will further fuel speculation she could defect to another party such as One Nation or the Libertarians, though she has not indicated she would.
Dozens of Liberal members met at party headquarters on Collins Street on Sunday to preselect candidates for the Western Metropolitan Region, where Deeming – who wore Liberal blue – faced a two-pronged challenge for the safe No.1 position.
Dinesh Gourisetty beat both Deeming and her fellow MP Trung Luu in a vote yet to be endorsed by the party’s state executive.
Luu has also contested the second position.
Deeming did not nominate for the second position or wait for that result, and quickly left the meeting about 3pm with her husband Andrew. She did not comment.
Liberals expect to easily re-elect two MPs in the region at the November election, particularly given Labor’s waning popularity after three terms. But the spectre of One Nation could challenge that confidence. The Liberal Party was relegated to just one upper house MP in the Western Metropolitan Region in the 2018 “Danslide”.
Deeming was repeatedly falsely defamed as a Nazi sympathiser by former Liberal leader John Pesutto in her first months in parliament, a saga that has dogged the party for three years.
“I am seeking your support for preselection because we have a real opportunity to rebuild and strengthen the Liberal presence across Melbourne’s west. For more than 15 years I have served our party at the grassroots level, supporting candidates, organising volunteers, raising funds and helping strengthen our presence across the region,” Gourisetty wrote in his candidate brochure.
“Families in the west deserve the same level of opportunity and services enjoyed by communities in other parts of Melbourne.”
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson had been making calls in recent days to shore up votes for Deeming, who also enjoys the support of conservative former prime minister Tony Abbott and his former chief of staff turned Sky host Peta Credlin.
But a tally circulated by Gourisetty supporters in the weeks before the vote showed he was comfortably ahead.
The party stripped voting rights from four delegates in the days leading up to the preselection, using legitimate justifications under the party’s constitution such as that they worked for MPs. Sources unable to speak publicly believed the unusual attention to the constitution was designed to ensure the outcomes of such preselections could withstand any scrutiny.
“Preselections are a matter for the party,” Wilson said on Friday.
The legitimacy of the branch meetings in which delegates were elected had also faced challenges.
Abbott said the first-term MP had “shown remarkable magnanimity, given all that’s happened to her” and that she was working hard in western Melbourne, declaring this would become the Liberal Party’s new heartland.
“I can’t think of anyone who’s had to endure so much ‘friendly fire’, yet remained a staunch Liberal, and any preselector who doesn’t want to keep her in the state parliamentary party room I reckon has a death wish,” the former prime minister wrote in an endorsement for Deeming.
Credlin’s letter of recommendation said beating the old Labor government will require “warriors” like Deeming.
“I have met a lot of people in public life since I first joined the Victorian division some 30 years ago, but I have never met a more tenacious, more resilient and more fearless person than Moira,” Credlin wrote.
“Few of us could have withstood the things she has, and yet not only has she emerged victorious and stronger for it, but throughout her period of persecution, she never gave up on her commitment to the Liberal cause and that says everything about her character.”
Wilson has written endorsements for all her MPs who have requested them during the upper house preselection season.
“Moira is an articulate voice for those who feel they are under-represented or unheard and has genuine interest in policy solutions that support personal freedom, responsibility, and reward for effort,” Wilson wrote in her letter of recommendation for Deeming.
Former national Labor president-turned-Liberal Nyunggai Warren Mundine also endorsed her candidacy, writing that western suburbs people “couldn’t care less about the latest woke ideologies”.
Leader of the opposition in the upper house Bev McArthur comfortably withstood a challenge on Saturday to hold the No.1 ticket spot in the Western Victoria region. Former MP Graham Watt was elected to the second position.
Rachel Eddie is a Victorian state political reporter for The Age. Contact her at rachel.eddie@theage.com.au, rachel.eddie@protonmail.com, or via Signal at @RachelEddie.99Connect via X or email.
