Victorian politician Moria Deeming has shared her thoughts on her expulsion from the parliamentary Liberal party in an exclusive interview with Peta Credlin.
Credlin, who is a vocal critic of Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto, has become the go-to media contact for Deeming. The embattled MP who previously sat down with the former political staffer for a friendly interview on her Sky News program.
The Liberal leader first pushed to have Deeming expelled from the party after she appeared at the Let Women Speak event in March. That motion was withdrawn and as a compromise Deeming agreed to be suspended from the party room for nine months.
Disagreement between the different camps has bubbled on for weeks with a series of accusations levelled at Pesutto relating to his refusal to accept the minutes of the meeting which were created by Deeming ally Renee Heath. The minutes were leaked to the Credlin, and Pesutto faced accusations of bullying – accusations he strongly denied.
Deeming later appeared to threaten Pesutto and the party with defamation action, a claim she later described as being false reporting by news outlets. This appears to have triggered five MPs including former leader Matthew Guy to push for a new expulsion motion. Late this week Deeming did issue a notice of concern to Pesutto, a legal action he says he will fight in court. On Friday a majority of her colleagues voted to kick her out.
In a Q&A with Credlin published in the Herald Sun newspaper Deeming said that while she’d been forced out of the parliamentary Liberal party, she had no intention of resigning her membership from the Liberal party.
“I will never resign. I will never quit. I will not do their dirty work for them, I have much too much dignity for that.” Deeming said, claiming that thousands of party faithful had been in touch with her office over recent months.
Deeming said her involvement in the Let Women Speak rally was based on her belief that women and girls need to be protected from “biological males”.
“I just care about the right of women and girls to spaces that are theirs alone – toilets, changerooms, prisons and more. I don’t believe it’s right for a biological male to be able to remove his clothing in front of women and girls in a public space. I just don’t.” Deeming said.
The now-independent MP said she had never intended to take legal action against the party or her colleagues, and her concern was solely with leader John Pesutto.
” I just care about the right of women and girls to spaces that are theirs alone – toilets, changerooms, prisons and more. I don’t believe it’s right for a biological male to be able to remove his clothing in front of women and girls in a public space. I just don’t.” Deeming said. The MP confirmed that she would be continuing her legal action against the leader.
Deeming said she believed there was a groundswell of support in the community for her position, and that many of her now former colleagues supporter her views but were afraid to publicly state them out of fear of a media backlash.
Meanwhile Liberal leader John Pesutto has been out doing many media interviews promoting the Liberal party as moving forward with an inclusive agenda.
OIP Staff
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