‘He is a dead man walking’: Pressure mounts on Pesutto despite belief Deeming will be expelled

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Indigenous leader and former federal Liberal candidate Nyunggai Warren Mundine has called on Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto to quit, labelling him a “fool” for backing a fresh motion to expel controversial MP Moira Deeming.

Conservative Liberals have rallied behind Deeming, who last year won preselection with the backing of the party’s moderate faction, as the upper house MP prepares to face a second motion to remove her from the parliamentary party.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine, a leading conservative, says moderate and conservative Liberals won’t unite under John Pesutto. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Her critics and supporters in the Victorian party room expect Friday’s expulsion motion to pass.

Mundine, also the Labor Party’s former national president, told The Age Pesutto was a “fool” for letting the issue drag on for six weeks, particularly when Victorians needed a strong opposition.

“He is a dead man walking, no matter what happens,” he said. “They are arguing about minutes [of a meeting]. There are bigger things and that’s the Victorian people. They need to feel comfortable that the Liberals have sound, sensible leadership that focuses on them rather than on internal issues and navel-gazing.”

Late last week, federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton left the door open to a federal intervention in the Victorian Liberal Party, warning it had to “sort this mess out”.

His comments came after Deeming issued a failed ultimatum for Pesutto to declare she is not a Nazi sympathiser or face legal action.

Deeming backed down from her legal threat over the weekend and issued a statement denying she had planned to sue the Liberal Party and she only wanted a lawyer’s assistance to help clear her name and resolve her suspension.

The upper house MP was suspended for nine months in March after a compromise was reached following her attendance at the Let Women Speak rally on the steps of state parliament. That protest was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

Premier Daniel Andrews has used the saga to deride the opposition, repeatedly saying equality is not negotiable in Victoria and using question time to suggest Pesutto’s days as opposition leader are numbered.

Mundine said Pesutto – who he referred to as a “seagull” for chasing after chips thrown by Andrews – should resign as leader and, if he did not go, the federal division should take over.

“This bloke was meant to be put in place to make the party electable. What he has done is given Daniel Andrews the next state election on a platter.

“The conservative and moderates needed to be brought together, and that can’t happen with this bloke.”

A federal takeover of the Victorian division would mean preselections, organisational decisions and administrative committee membership are run by the federal Liberal Party.

Mundine said while he disagreed with Deeming’s email threatening legal action, the state MP did not deserve to be expelled.

Former prime minister and leading conservative Tony Abbott agreed the punishment went too far, telling The Age he stood by comments he made on Sky News last week that Deeming had done “nothing wrong”.

“She has said absolutely nothing that should be undoable and unsayable by Liberals,” he said. “She hasn’t done anything to deserve even suspension from the party room, let alone expulsion. And if it’s impossible for a Liberal to defend women’s rights to their own safe spaces and to fair sport, well, at least in Victoria, the Liberal Party is in a lot more trouble than I thought.”

Former South Australian Liberal MP Nicolle Flint, a member of the conservative faction, echoed Abbott’s comments online, posting on social media that the Victorian party is “looking more and more like a dangerous dictatorship that silences dissidents”.

Her broadside was in response to Brighton MP James Newbury, who supports the expulsion, tweeting that “a line has been drawn in the sand … John Pesutto and our team will modernise the party and offer Victorians the mainstream alternative they expect”.

Pesutto declined to comment. State deputy leader David Southwick said Pesutto’s leadership was not irreparably damaged by the Deeming saga and he had the support of Victoria’s Liberals to reform the party.

“John is very focused on doing what he needs to do in terms of being the alternate premier,” he said.

“It is absolutely frustrating. I’m frustrated. A number of my colleagues are really frustrated. So I think, if anything, what it’s in fact doing is showing a number of people are rallying behind John to ensure we do what needs to be done.”

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