Moira Deeming Expulsion Push Based on Serious Errors

Liberal party MP Moira Deeming poses for a photograph at the the Parliament of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, on Dec. 19. 2022. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming, who is facing a controversial move by the Victorian Liberal party to expel her, has said that she believes a dossier provided to the Victorian party leaders on her involvement in a controversial women’s rights protest contained several “serious errors.”

Deeming spoke at the Melbourne “Let Women Speak” rally, which was organised by contentious women rights advocate Kelli-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker).

The rallies have been plagued by controversy over the past week after a rally in Melbourne was marred by threats of violence from trans-activists and gatecrashed by a group of protesters who performed a Nazi salute. Another rally in Hobart was drowned out by large groups of LGBTQIA+ protesters, while the Canberran event saw independent Senator Lidia Thorpe tackled to the ground by police as she tried to interrupt a speech by Keen.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe (formerly of the Greens) crawls away after attempting to disrupt British women's rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, at a “Let Women Speak” rally against transgenders entering women's spaces outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on March 23, 2023. (AAP Image/Michelle Haywood)

In an email to The Epoch Times, Deeming said that she believed that the motion to expel her was unwarranted.

She said that she intends to provide her Victorian Liberal party colleagues with clarification and evidence to allay any concerns that the parliamentary team may have “so that she can continue together with them as a team.”

But to respect the party process, Deeming would “not be making any statements to the press until after the vote.”

Victorian Liberal Party Under Pressure over Proposed Expulsion

The Victorian Liberal Party is facing increasing pressure to not expel Deeming, with former and present federal senators stating she should not be banished from the party.

Former Liberal Senator Eric Abetz, in an op-ed for The Epoch Times, has asked why the state Liberal leader moved to expel Deeming before allowing her time to explain the situation.

“Would the Liberal leader resign if, at a public meeting he attended, an uninvited attendee rose to his feet and undertook an offensive nazi salute (a tautology if ever there was one)? Surely not,” Abetz said.

“One trusts an explanation would be given, stating that this was not what he was attending, and he cannot be held responsible for other people’s actions, especially ones completely outside of his control.”

Sen. Eric Abetz at Parliament House in Canberra on March 25, 2021. (Sam Mooy/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, current Liberal senator for South Australia, Alec Antic, said that the rally held in Melbourne, which was overtaken by the Nazi protest, was designed to let women speak about their concerns around biological men being able to access spaces like bathrooms and women’s sports.

“The movement is rightfully concerned about biological men undermining the integrity of women’s sports and spaces such as bathrooms. They’re absolutely correct to be concerned; I am too,” he said.

“It’s a shameful reflection on the lazy partisan media and our political classes that Ms Deeming would be vilified for something over which she had absolutely no control. How is this different from a member of the Australian Labor Party or the Australian Greens attending a rally for Palestine, which is descended upon by antisemitic or union thugs? The answer to that is it’s no different at all.

“The only thing that’s different here is the media, and the political class cannot find the requisite spine to stand for a principle. Is this the low-water mark of our free speech and our democracy, to now be defined by those who gatecrash an event?”

Trans-Rights Advocates Call For More Protections

The controversy has also sparked calls for anti-vilification laws to protect the LGBTIQ+ community.

“There are currently no federal laws and no laws in Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia protecting LGBTIQ+ people from vilification. Only vilification based on race (and in Victoria, also based on religion) is prohibited in these places,” a coalition of trans, LGBTIQ+, multicultural, women’s and other civil society organisations Equality Australia said.

Pro-women protesters (left) and transgender rights protesters (right) gather outside Parliament House in Melbourne on March 18, 2023. (James Ross/AAP Image)

CEOs of Transgender Victoria and Transcend Son Vivienne and Jeremy Wiggins said: “Surely, we can agree that whatever our personal or political beliefs, we share a human desire for mutual respect?

“Anti-vilification laws are one way to protect humanity against violence, hate and bigoted ideologies that hurt all people, but especially those at the intersections of stigmatised gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, faith, class and disability.

“Transgender Victoria and Transcend believe in standing for common decency and compassion, and we call upon state and federal governments to strengthen legal protections against hate.”