As new Victoria Liberal leader Jess Wilson works out whose going to fulfill which role in her Shadow Cabinet there’s calls for first term MP Mira Deeming to be made Shadow Minister for Women.
Deeming is a leading advocate against transgender women being given access to women’s space and the affirming care model of treatment for gender dysphoria. Her profile increased significantly after she helped organise the Melbourne edition of the Let Women Speak tour of UK provocateur Kellie Jay Keen.
Keen and toured around Australia, drawing large protests at each stop around the nation. At the Melbourne event a group of neo-Nazi’s gatecrashed the event and stood adjacent to the Let Women Speak event, antagonising the protesters.
Former federal Liberal MP Nicole Flint is one of the voices calling for Deeming to be elevated to the position. Flint, who served in the federal parliament 2016 until 2022 has recently been campaigning for transgender women to be held in male prisons alongside activist organisation Australian Women’s Forum.
Appearing on the Credlin program on Sky News Flint said Deeming was the perfect candidate for the role.
The call comes after Wilson appeared on the program the previous day and announced her belief that transgender women should always be housed in a male facility.
“I think there is a place for biological men in women’s prisons, I think that there is a need to ensure that women in women’s prisons feel safe, and that is something that I’m prepared to stand up and say “I’m not going to stand for.”
Flint said she was delighted with the comments Wilson had made the previous day before adding, “the other thing she could do really cement her standing on women’s issues in to make Moira Deeming the shadow Minister or Women.”
In the days that followed Deeming’s appearance at Keen’s rally Liberal party colleagues banished her from the party room at the urging of then leader John Pesutto. Deeming sued Pesutto and the court found that his comments in the lead up to that action had been defamatory.
Pesutto was found liable and ordered to pay $300,000 in damages as well as a hefty $2.3 million legal bill. The situation left him facing potential bankrupcy which would have led to him being ineligible to sit in parliament. He was bailed out by the party but his time as leader soon came to an end.
Under new leader Brad Battin Deeming was promoted to the special role of “representative of the western suburbs.”
Cindy McLeish is current the Shadow Minister for Women. She previously served as the party’s deputy leader from 2018 until 2021. She has been a member of parliament since 2010, and has held the Shadow Minister for Women since December 2022.
