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Firebrand independent MP Moira Deeming will run for the Family First Party in the November election, after being formally dumped by the Liberal Party in July following three years of tumultuous infighting.
Announcing her decision to join to the conservative minor party on Thursday, Deeming said she did not regret making an allegation that her former colleague Matthew Guy put her in “some kind of headlock” at a community event in May.
Victoria Police dropped an investigation into Deeming’s claim after viewing CCTV footage from the venue, which showed Guy briefly resting a hand on Deeming’s shoulder and leaning forward to speak to her.
The Liberal Party state executive voted to revoke Deeming’s candidacy in July after she refused to apologise to Guy, a former party leader. It followed the first-term MP’s highly publicised defamation case against then-Liberal leader John Pesutto, which consumed the party for much of 2023 and 2024.
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At a press conference on Thursday, Deeming conceded that she got “one little phrase inaccurate” by saying Guy had put her in a “headlock” and said that if she were using “technical language”, an arm clinch or collar tie would have been more accurate.
“All I was trying to do is say it felt like some kind of headlock,” she said. “I don’t know what it was. It really did hurt. It really did frighten me, and he had no right to put his hand on me.”
Deeming also said that the previously published CCTV footage of the interaction was not “official footage” of the occurrence.
Deeming’s bitter infighting with colleagues plunged the Liberals into dysfunction for much of this term of parliament, starting when she helped organise the Let Women Speak rally in March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
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Following the rally, the Liberals expelled Deeming from the party room, which led to her ultimately successful case against Pesutto for defamation for portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser.
Pesutto’s replacement, Brad Battin, subsequently readmitted Deeming to the party before she then resigned in July after being disendorsed.
Deeming said that “three or four” other parties had asked her to join their ranks, but that she was “delighted” to join Family First and run for an upper house seat for the Western Metropolitan region.
“I think that they’re good people, and I agree with a lot of what they stand for,” she said, noting that Family First align with her core values of protecting children and restoring “sex-based rights” for women and girls.
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Following the incident with Matthew Guy, federal senator Pauline Hanson said she was not interested in recruiting Deeming to run as a One Nation candidate in the November 28 state election because of her accusations and her refusal to apologise.
If successful, Deeming would be the first Family First MP elected to the Victorian parliament.
At the 2022 state election, Family First received only 3.17 per cent of first-preference votes in Deeming’s seat, and attracted 2.01 per cent of votes statewide.
Policies listed on the Family First website include introducing greater restrictions on abortions and gender-affirming care, banning Drag Queen Storytime events, and opposing moves to ban parents from smacking their children.
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Patrick Hatch is state politics reporter at The Age. Contact him at [email protected], or via Signal at @pwhatch.61Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement