If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will be aware that I am not exactly an admirer of former State Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.
My thoughts on him during the late era of his leadership have been expressed thus, if you want a recap:
To reiterate, I consider him a hypocrite, a cad, and a blackguard, and my reasoning for such feelings is set out in detail in the above blog postings.
But for all that, I do not think that even he deserves to have Moira Deeming inflicted upon him.
Last month, Moira Deeming, who happens to be a former English teacher, complained to the police that Matthew Guy had put her in a headlock at some function. The police reviewed the security footage and took no action, as Guy had merely put his hand on her shoulder to get her to move closer to him so she could hear him clearly. Her explanation after her accusation was disproved was that she misunderstood the meaning of the term ‘headlock’.
I am so grateful that the English teachers I had in high school were competent and were able to instil in me a greater understanding of the English language (and are largely responsible for me being able to write in the fluent and coherent style that has lasted me throughout my studies and working life).
Matthew Guy has rightly demanded an apology from Mrs Deeming for besmirching his name in this way. As this has not been forthcoming, there is, yet again, talk of expelling her from the Parliamentary Liberal Party and removing her tenuously held endorsement to run as the lead Liberal candidate in Western Metropolitan. She has obtained a two week injunction preventing the Liberal Party administration from pursuing the latter course of action.
One way or the other, Moria has had the most destructive impact on the Victorian Liberal Party in the past four years. Her narrow preselection win four years ago was followed by the misguided departure of one of her main rivals who then ran against her as an independent, as well as the resignation in protest from the Liberal Party by one of her predecessors in the seat.
Then, on entering parliament, she participated in some now infamous rally which was hijacked by neo-nazis. The downstream consequences of her participation in that rally caused her to be expelled from the parliamentary party, to successfully sue then Opposition Leader John Pessuto for defamation, and then to cause Pessuto to lose his leadership in consequence. I am firmly of the belief that John Pessuto would have had the best chance of leading the Liberals to victory at the upcoming state election.
Her recent re-endorsement as candidate for Western Metropolitan only occurred because the prospective candidate who had successfully challenged her was immediately revealed as one of several prominent Indian community leaders who had given a character reference to someone gaoled for underage sex offences. [There were other issues with that other candidate, and I wish that local Liberals had done a better job of trying to find a better alternative to her.]
All of which, for a very junior sometime member of the state opposition, has taken up a lot of oxygen for both the party administration and the opposition leadership group which should have been spent on more important matters, like exposing the serious issues with the current government and choosing decent candidates in a timely manner to run against Jacinta Allen’s appalling government.
Jacinta must be grateful indeed for the existence of Mrs Deeming in the state opposition – particularly the way her presence fluctuates between being in the party and not.
What happens next? The state election is due in four and a half months. The party administration has not yet filled all the seats where it needs to field candidates, and having to decide what to do about this turbulent backbencher is eating up a lot of time and energy which should be spent on preparing for the election.
If she is allowed to run as a Liberal, then she will be a major electoral liability across the state. If she is disendorsed (and I have little doubt that this will happen), I am confident that she will look for a new home in some other party.
Apparently Pauline Hanson and One Nation were interested in welcoming her in earlier this year, but when Mrs Deeming chose to remain in the Liberal fold, their interest waned. I suspect that Pauline has learned over the past 30 years to be cautious about people who are not good team players.
But there are other options, which one could take from the Bernie Finn playbook (our Bernie, by the way, has gone from DLP at the last state election to Family First at the last federal election and has now officially embraced One Nation).
One Family First activist posted a long and very sympathetic entry on Facebook very recently about how hard done by Mrs Deeming has been by the Liberals. It is reasonable to interpret this as a public overture to her. I think it is a very viable option.
And of course, there is the DLP, who have taken one of the five seats in Western Metropolitan previously in 2006, and who welcomed Bernie in as their leader and candidate in 2022 after his long overdue expulsion from the Liberals. The DLP appears to be moribund at the moment, after changes to electoral laws on membership numbers stripped them of the ability to run in Federal elections, but the addition of a sitting member of state parliament would reinvigorate their capacity to run candidates.
Moira Deeming might be down, but she is definitely not out. More’s the pity.
Lost For Words! 