Commentary
Just when I thought things could not possibly get worse for the centre-right Victorian Liberal Party … they did!
Having agreed weeks ago to suspend conservative MP Moira Deeming from the Parliamentary Liberal Party for nine months after speaking at a rally that was hijacked by neo-Nazis, the leadership has now plunged the organisation into further turmoil.
The suspension outcome was a face-saving measure for the leader of the opposition, John Pesutto, having realised the notion that Deeming had somehow colluded with neo-Nazis to be unsustainable.
Messy though it was, that should have been the end of the matter.
But a failure to release a joint statement, arguments about party meeting minutes, the leaking of those minutes, MPs calling colleagues “terrorists,” and threats of legal action created a farcical situation. The only winners are the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and the Labor Party government….