Deeming avoided being expelled from the state parliamentary Liberal Party after she disclosed to colleagues she had been raped as a young child,and that her advocacy for women and children stemmed from that,not from her religious or conservative views.
She also sent her colleagues a damning seven-page legal critique of the case against her just hours before the meeting began,disputing the allegations but making a number of condemnations that swung the mood of the leadership team.
Pesutto told reporters after the meeting that Deeming made “important concessions” that he had requested for more than a week after his leadership team summoned her to explain her conduct and distance herself from anti-trans rights activists Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and Angela Jones,the organisers of the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
Deeming “unreservedly condemned” the past use by Keen-Minshull on social media of an image of a Barbie doll wearing a Nazi swastika armband,and Jones’ “use of a Nazi analogy” when she tweeted:“Nazis and women want to get rid of paedo filth. Why don’t you?”
Hours after the meeting,she told Jones in a tweet:“Don’t worry,I never condemned you,or KD[Katherine Deves] or KJ[Keen-Minshull].”
The upper house MP was not asked by the leadership team to condemn the trio,but instead to condemn their actions that Pesutto believed brought the party and parliament into disrepute. Three Liberal sources toldThe Age the information Deeming provided early on Monday morning was not new,and that she had previously made the concessions requested by the leadership team.
“I will be carefully reviewing[Deeming’s tweets],as will all of my party room colleagues – everything Moira says and does from here,” Pesutto told ABCNews Breakfaston Tuesday morning.
“There’s a road for Moira to take if she wants to earn her place back in the party room. Now,she’s not off to a good start. She’s got nine months to prove herself and if she doesn’t,she won’t be re-entering the party room.”
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He toldRN Breakfasthe felt he needed to show empathy after Deeming shared her personal story.
He said she assured Liberal MPs at the meeting she would not repeat the mistakes she made at the rally,and he said he was unhappy with her tweet to Jones.
One Liberal MP toldThe Age some colleagues were frustrated that Deeming’s first statement after the meeting was to assure Jones she had not personally condemned her.
“It was made very clear her role is not as an activist but a member of parliament,and a community leader,” the MP said. “The Liberal Party is not interested in having a Lidia Thorpe in its ranks.”
Deeming declined to comment on Pesutto’s rebuke when contacted on Tuesday.
In a statement released by Pesutto’s office on Monday night,Deeming said she accepted her attendance at the Let Women Speak rally might have been an error of judgment.
“As I have stated,I unreservedly condemn the poor-taste Nazi jokes and Nazi analogies listed in the annex of evidence against me,” she said. “I believe I am innocent of all imputations and accusations of any connection whatsoever with Nazism in any shape or form and any bigotry whatsoever toward the LGBTQI+ community.”
With Paul Sakkal
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