Controversial Victorian MP Moira Deeming has been dumped as the Liberal Party’s candidate at November’s state election after she failed to apologise over allegations she made about a party colleague.
The party’s state executive took just 13 minutes on Friday night to unanimously disendorse Ms Deeming from the first position in the Western Metro Region.
“The Liberal Party wishes to thank Moira for her service to the Liberal Party,” a spokesman said.
“The Liberal Party considers the matter resolved and we look forward to continuing to outline our plan to provide the fresh start Victoria needs, in the lead up to the November election.”
The party needed a 75 per cent majority to disendorse Ms Deeming, which was passed unanimously, The Australian reported.
A statement posted by Ms Deeming this week said she withdrew an injunction after she gave the state executive a statement and mediation proposal to settle the matter.
“The state executive, having all the evidence before them, can now decide whether to pursue mediation or reconvene to disendorse me,” she said.
“Having been overseas and unwell when the story broke and jet-lagged and unwell when the disendorsement meeting was called, the injunction gave me time to recover, review all the facts, learn the difference between a headlock and a collar-tie grip, and gather my thoughts.”
Ms Deeming filed a police report alleging fellow Liberal MP Matthew Guy had put her in a headlock at a Sunshine West function on May 23.
Police investigating the complaint found no offence was detected after they reviewed footage of the incident.
The Opposition Leader Jess Wilson cancelled a meeting with Ms Deeming after she refused to apologise to Mr Guy.
“Jess Wilson and Matthew Guy asked for an unqualified apology. Moira Deeming released a statement saying that she was not willing to apologise. Therefore, there will not be a meeting between Jess Wilson and Moira Deeming,” James Newbury, the Liberal Party’s legal affairs spokesman, said at the time.
Following the police investigation, Ms Deeming released a statement through her lawyer last month, which said she misunderstood the term headlock and that she acted in good faith to describe what happened.
Ms Deeming’s short parliamentary career has been controversial.
She was sensationally suspended from sitting in parliament for nine months after she went to an anti-transgender rally that was also attended by neo-Nazis.
She said the hate group had not been invited and she had not been accused of being a neo-Nazi sympathiser.
Then Liberal leader John Pesutto tried to expel Ms Deeming following her appearance at a Let Women Speak rally in 2023.
She later successfully sued Mr Pesutto for defamation.
“This judgment is a public acknowledgment that there was never any justification – legal, moral or political – for what the Opposition Leader (Pesutto) did to me and to my family,” Ms Deeming said after the court ruling.
“The organisers and attendees of the 2023 Melbourne Let Women Speak rally did nothing wrong and it is shameful that they were treated without fairness or respect by so many in public office.”