John Howard Slams Liberals Over Moira Deeming Expulsion
Image: Moira Deeming and John Howard. Image: Facebook/ Wikimedia Commons.
Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard blamed the Liberal Party’s loss in the by-election on the party’s treatment of MP Moira Deeming, who was expelled over her participation in an anti-trans rally in Melbourne attended by neo-Nazis.
Deeming had spoken at the March 2023 rally by British ant-trans campaigner Kellie Jay-Keen aka Posie Parker, during which neo-Nazi members of the National Socialist Network performed the Nazi salute outside Victorian Parliament.
Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto initially moved an expulsion motion against Deeming. However, Deeming avoided being expelled from the party after she accepted a suspension from the party room in March. Subsequently, her threats to sue Pesutto for defamation, saw her being expelled from the party in May 2023.
‘Why Pick On Our Own?’
The Ashton by-elections were declared on April 24, 2023. In an address to party members, Howard described Deeming’s treatment by the Victorian Liberals as “appalling”, reported The Australian.
“Why we chose to pick on one of our own, who was really demonstrating what all of us think is self-evidently the case,” said Howard.
Deeming, who filed a defamation suit against Pesutto in May, filed a second one against the Victorian opposition leader last week. In her 16-page defamation notice, Deeming accused Pesutto of publicly calling her a Nazi sympathiser and bullying her in the Parliamentary party, reported AAP.
Deeming had sought aggravated damages from Pesutto.
Anti-Trans Views
Known for her anti-trans views, Deeming this week said she had “called for an Inquiry into medical transitioning of minors in Victoria.”
In Parliament, she asked, “the Education minister to disclose how many Vic public school students have been declared ‘Mature Minors’ at school for the purpose of social transitioning.”
During her time as Melton city councillor, the former teacher, attended meetings of various councils across Australia to ask if it was “legal for local government councils to provide sex-based targeted services and facilities separately to gender-identity based targeted services and facilities. If not, why not?”
In her 2020 campaign statement for the local council elections, Deeming said she was against “radical policies” like storytimes for children narrated by Drag Queens and trans persons getting access to bathrooms that match their gender identity.
In her maiden speech to Parliament in February 2023, Deeming claimed women and female children in Victoria were suffering as the government “cannot or will not define what a female is”.
Deeming spoke out against the state’s gender affirmation policy. The MP claimed “what most women would consider to be sexual harassment and indecent exposure is now legal in Victoria,” and called on the state to reinstate what she called “sex-based rights”.
