Moira Deeming Dumped By Victorian Liberals
Image: Image courtesy Moira Deeming/ Instagram
Controversial anti-trans MP Moira Deeming has been dumped from the ballot for the Victorian Liberal party at the November state election, after a successful challenge by business leader Dinesh Gourisetty.
The move comes after Deeming sued former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto for defamation over his public remarks linking her to the Nazis at an anti-trans rally which she helped organised, which he apologised for publicly in May last year, and which led to her expulsion from the party.
The court found Pesutto had defamed Deeming on multiple occasions, including suggesting she 鈥渁ssociates with Nazis and is thus unfit to be a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party.鈥�
Deeming was awarded $315,000 in damages, and was later readmitted into the Liberal party after a leadership spill.
Deeming has a long record of campaigning against trans rights, aligning herself with controversial international figures and聽framing trans-inclusive policies as threats to women鈥檚 safety. As well as helping organise and speak at the infamous Let Women Speak rally, which was attended by Nazi groups who agreed with the anti-trans sentiment of the event, she has campaigned against LGBTQIA+ education such as Safe Schools, and recently has been outspoken on banning trans women from sport. She has also gathered criticism for her “pro-life” views on restricting abortion access to women, and her COVID vaccination criticism.
On Sunday, party members voted for Dinesh Gourisetty to replace Deeming in the top spot for a western metropolitan region seat in the upper house. Deeming has enjoyed the backing of聽 high-profile conservative figures including former prime minister Tony Abbott, Sky 今日吃瓜 host Peta Credlin, and current party leader Jess Wilson. Gourisetty is considered a moderate candidate, and if elected, would become the first Indian-Australian Liberal MP in Victoria鈥檚 parliament.
Deeming’s loss has led to speculation she may consider defecting to another party, with One Nation state president Warren Pickering saying his party was 鈥渙pen to discussions鈥� with the upper house MP, whom he called 鈥渃ourageous鈥�.
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Good riddance to her. Unfortunately, she will probably jump ship to One Nation, which is polling well everywhere. The rise of One Nation is alarming and needs to be resisted.
Sadly there will never be justice for the day when Deeming hosted her rally and neo-Nazis threatened the lives of trans women and vilified them further. Existing laws were broken that day, police refused to enforce them, and queer leaders declined to seek justice. To make matters worse, the mainstream media erased the victimisation of trans women, barely mentioning them at all, and only talking about the generic offensiveness of the Nazi salute. A slap in the face to trans women.
We can only hope that authorities will now proactively enforce the law where vilification against queer people is encountered, now that we have long-sought, purpose-made protections. We can only hope queer leaders are equally proactive.
This matter sits at the intersection of a related one: the weaponisation of hate speech laws in NSW and QLD to silence pro-Palestinians supporters. Legitimate free speech is being censored and punished. Just yesterday a pro-Palestinian artist in QLD was contacted by police and had to remove artworks from his website which were literally commentaries on this very censorship! Scary. Genuine hate speech should be punished – while good faith opinions about land disputes, statehood, sovereignty, military violence, and legal and morally culpability, should be protected from censorship- just as we are free to speak about any other matter in public life.