Expelled Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has claimed she “unjustly suffered” after her participation in a Melbourne rally by British anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, that was attended by neo-Nazis.
Deeming posted a short statement to social media after the Liberal Party’s federal women’s committee called for the expelled MP to be reinstated.
The motion, which reportedly passed by one vote, also called on Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto to apologise to Deeming.
“My husband & I, & our four children, as well as all those who have suffered unjustly for attending the legal & peaceful ‘Let Women Speak rally’ in Melbourne- are extremely grateful to the Federal Liberal Women’s Committee for their public show of support,” Deeming said in a statement on Twitter. Deeming tagged failed Warringah liberal candidate Katherine Deves and Keen aka Posie Parker.
Moira Deeming Expelled
In May 2023, Deeming was expelled from the Liberal party after she threatened to sue Pesutto for defamation, claiming the Victorian Liberal leader allegedly accused her of being a “Nazi sympathiser”.
On Friday morning, the motion passed by the committee said that “as the peak women’s body of the Liberal Party of Australia,” it was “concerned by the actions of Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto MP and the actions taken by some members of the Liberal Victorian parliamentary team,” reported Nine Newspapers.
“The expulsion of Moira Deeming MLC was without basis. Women have a right to participate in the political process without fear of cancellation. The silencing of women has no place in the Liberal Party,” the motion said, adding, “The federal women’s committee demands the immediate reinstatement of the honourable member Moira Deeming MLC and a full apology from Opposition Leader Mr John Pesutto MP.”
Earlier this month, Victoria’s first out transgender councillor Tosh-Jake Finnigan claimed that Deeming who has a history of making anti-trans statements, did not “harbour some deep underlying hatred for transgender people”.
Finnigan said they would be “expected to denounce” Deeming. The councillor slammed Pesutto and the Victorian Liberal leadership claiming if they were “actually concerned with your alleged hatred towards transgender people rather than just seeking to shore up their numbers in the party room, perhaps they would have spoken to the only transgender elected official in Victoria to see what the party could do to address the issue, but instead, the very MPs they have decried as transphobic and homophobic were the ones to reach out and sit down to see what we can do to bring people together.”