When Moira Deeming changed her Twitter profile to read “Independent Liberal” political junkies asked if it was a sign that the Victorian MP was about to become an independent, launch her own party, or sign on as the first MP of a new global women’s party?
Deeming, a first term MP in Victoria’s Upper House, was suspended from the party room from nine months after she spoke at anti-transgender event held on the steps of the Victorian parliament. The ‘Let Women Speak’ tour featured British campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, aka Posie Parker, who creates the provocative open-microphone events around the world.
The Melbourne event made news headlines around the world when a neo-Nazi group appeared adjacent to the Let Women Speak event. The group made Nazi salutes on the steps of parliament house, and held up an offensive sign directed at the counter-protesters.
The New Zealand leg of Keen’s tour was called off after Keen was doused in tomato juice at her Auckland event and thousands of counter-protesters broke through security barricades. Keen was escorted away form the crowd by her security team. Upon her return to Britain Keen announced she was forming a global political party called Party of Women, and planned to run candidates in multiple countries.
In an interview on Sky News on Tuesday night Deeming told host Peta Credlin that she had no intention of leaving the Liberal party.
“I’m absolutely a proud Liberal.” Deeming said.
“I just want people to stick with the Liberal party, I don’t want to start a new party, I don’t want to be an independent. I’m a Liberal, this is my party, and I’m not leaving.”
Deeming her colleagues had agreed that her reinstatement to the party room after the suspension would be automatic, and there was no official reason why she had been suspended for nine months.
“Technically there were no grounds listed for the suspension.” Deeming said explaining that the original accusation from leader John Pesutto that she had brought the party into disrepute had been withdrawn.
Peta Credlin said Liberal leader John Pesutto had defamed Deeming, but the MP declined to comment on the accusation.
The MP said she was campaigning against transgender people being allowed in single-sex spaces because she herself had been a victim of sexual assault on multiple occasions.
“I’ve experienced what it’s like to be vulnerable. I was abused as a child, I was often targeted in the toilet, I’ve had men expose themselves to me in public changerooms and toilets, but the difference was I had the right to do something about it and to complain.
Deeming said recent changes to law meant that women and girls could no longer complain when their boundaries were invaded.
The interview did not cover why Deeming’s condemnation of the neo-Nazi group came days after the event, or why she chose to sip champagne in a post-event video alongside Keen and other organisers of the event. In the video Keen suggested the neo-Nazi group may not have been genuine and may have been staged by another party.
See the whole interview.
OIP Staff
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