All eyes have been on the federal Liberal train wreck, but there’s trouble afoot in the state branches too — and nowhere more so than in Victoria, its traditional homeland.
We kind of expect the NSW Rum Corps to be blackmailing each other and receiving brown paper bags full of cash. That, after all, is part of the rich history of the party which has lost no fewer than three leaders to adverse findings of the state’s corruption body. But here in Victoria we’ve always prided ourselves on being … well … above all that. Lately, however, things have gone awry in the state that gave the world Sir Robert Menzies.
Turf war
Let’s start with the party’s likeable and moderate former leader John Pesutto who, despite leading in the polls, lost it all after locking horns with one of his MPs, Moira Deeming. Like much of what happens in the Liberal Party, the Pesutto-Deeming imbroglio became the flashpoint for an internal culture war.
The bare facts are that Deeming had addressed a Let Women Speak rally headlined by a controversial UK anti-trans rights activist, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. The event was at one point gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Deeming had no connection with the gatecrashers but Pesutto was not amused and sought to have her removed from the party room and then expelled.
Blown Sky high
Like moths to a flame, the hard-right warriors of old flew in to join the brawl — that daring duo of Tony Abbott and his former chief of staff Peta Credlin rose from the ashes, swords at the ready. As a result of court proceedings we now have a granular inside view of what unfolded, including text exchanges between the parties.
In one text, Deeming tells Credlin:
“Abbott just told me not to sue. Everything is in motion. I don’t know how to media manage it.”
The Sky anchor offered her views on “how to influence a party room vote, which MPs were ‘soft’ and could be turned, and how to media manage the saga”. Deeming was offered “a very friendly interview” and Credlin assured her she was “a superstar” who would one day lead the party.
Black and blue
Deeming did sue Pesutto for defamation and won her case after Federal Court judge David O’Callaghan ruled Pesutto had defamed her multiple times by implying she associated with Nazis. Pesutto faces bankruptcy after being ordered to stump up $2.3 million in legal fees to cover Deeming’s legal costs. If he is declared bankrupt he would be forced from the state parliament, triggering a byelection which may cost yet another blue ribbon seat.
Enter high-profile former premier Jeff Kennett who has staged an 11th hour intervention get the party to pay Deeming’s legal bill, claiming Pesutto is being threatened with bankruptcy for doing his job and is being subjected to “sheer hell”. Deeming’s lawyers now suggest Kennett and other Liberals who supported Pesutto financially may be pursued for the debt “as third parties”. Kennett says the party room is “a cesspool”. You following?
So no love in the Victorian division either.
A laughing stock
Let us not forget, too, that it is Victorian Liberal Alan Stockdale who was drafted in to fix the NSW branch after the its bungled nomination process last year meant 150 candidates could not contest local government elections. Stockdale, a former Victorian treasurer, made headlines for helpfully complaining to a NSW Liberal Women’s Council meeting that:
“The women in this party are so assertive now that we may need some special rules for men to get them pre-selected.”
That made the three women in the party room feel special. Yes, Mr Stockdale, the women are assertive and aren’t going to take it any more. Catch up.
The mainstream parties of the right are also the new magnet for emerging opportunists who do not follow old rules. Far-right astroturfing bodies, posing as grassroots civil society organisations but operated by ex-Liberal operatives, freely spread disinformation for the benefit of the federal party. Conspiracy theorists, fossil-fuel fanboys, anti-vaxxers and religious zealots come on in.
The ABC reported as far back as 2022 that a Victorian Pentecostal church told its followers the “church must awaken” and was infiltrating local Liberal branches.
Brethren bros
The optics are that climate denialism, bigotry, sexism, religious zealotry and confected culture wars have become prerequisites for party membership against a backdrop of the Exclusive Brethren religious cult handing out Liberal how-to-vote cards at election time. Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds warns the Brethren want favours in return:
“They don’t do things for democracy given they don’t vote: they do it to control the candidates. They’re dangerous … they hate women.”)
The United States is, of course, the world leader in this hard-right death spiral and we’re sniffing the wind. In America, the unfortunate truth is that being a deluded predatory unhinged lying zealot is no impediment to high office as long as you have the money to blast your way in. What the predator leaves behind is political, economic and societal wreckage. Be careful what you vote for.
Why oh why oh why did I invest in crypto instead of popcorn futures?
I will regret that until my dying day.
Victorian Liberals above all that……….
I give you Damian Mantach
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-19/damien-mantach-jailed-for-five-years-stealing-from-liberal-party/7640012
From ashes we cometh, and to ashes we shall return.
The Libs should make “Whatever it takes with whoever it takes” as their permanent slogan instead of the pathetically disguised “Let’s get Straya back on track”.
As a volunteer for my local MP, I witnessed the daily parade of EB members who cluttered up the pre poll and election day polling centres, handing out how to vote Liberal info.
What amazed me were the sheer numbers of young folk who were clearly “working “ for the
Brethren. I can only assume this religious cult was financially rewarded for providing this young army of so called “volunteers” ?
For once, the Victorian Libs would have been grateful if Moria had taken Tony Abbott’s advice.
She may have won the battle but perhaps not the war – which still has a long way to run.
Moira just lost the battle.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-11/moira-deeming-preselection-john-pesutto-bankruptcy-offer/105405034
Would such a proposal be illegal? offering a financial incentive for a seat in parliament?
I’m so glad you’re game to write about the pernicious influence of kooky religious fundamentalism and how it’s infiltrated the “Liberal” Party. They don’t change because they actually believe their god has given them dominion over the earth and everything in and on it. They are “The Chosen” who’ll be rising up to their god whilst the rest of us (the “sinners”) will be left on a burning planet. It explains all Morrison’s non-actions in the face of various disasters, be it bushfires or a pandemic. AND his fear, hatred and denial of the rights of women – we are merely Handmaidens. I’m in SA where the Libs have been actively recruiting Pentys and their leaders say publicly they can’t see why religion and government can’t be combined…
Voters are alarmed. I can’t see a Liberal government here for the foreseeable future
We already have a Liberal government. They just call themselves the Labor Party.
Nailed it Felix!
The current state of politics in this country demonstrates just how out of touch it is with 2025.They continue to behave like the same old received wisdom about the gullibility of the electorate still applies.They are still misinformed by their ‘expert ‘ advisors and the garbage media.Despite the’ landslide’ of federal Labor, the duopoly are destined for the same irrelevance,the coalition just happened to get there first.Two sides of the neoliberal coin, which continues to screw us all.
By the time of the next election Labor will also be staring into the abyss.It isn’t just the parties of the right.
It has never been ‘how good are Labor”…It is ‘how bad are their opposition.
With 39 Independents in federal parliament and their vote increasing, the future could be bright. The Liberals are a lost cause. A new truly Liberal party needs to form as a progressive capitalist party, small l and small c. And the right wing with all the Penties, EBs, Clive Palmers, and all those other minions on the right can get together and tear each other apart.
Labour needs to get cracking with real action to reduce that gap between rich and poor, otherwise we will have a revolution on our hands.
Before we are seduced into seeing her as a ‘wonderful’ human being, courtesy of both the reprehensible reptile and porky packer, with their minions of semi-literate, amateurish scribblers, and hydrogen-sulphide filled .addle headed radio and television shock jock puppets and stooges, we must remember that when she was the Environment Minister, supercilious, simplistic, superstitious Sus(s)an, rubberstamped every ecology and environment destroying project from the greedy untaxed/undertaxed fossil fuel and mining oligarchs that flitted across her desk,(no doubt hoping for financial kickbacks, not necessarily for her self, but definitely for LNP coffers), without question, and while at the same time, she charged the taxpayers for private and personal business trips (such as buying real estate, while ‘supposedly’ on official business). If we had an ICAC when she carried out these highly questionable actions, it is possible that she could now be wearing the grey uniform as a ‘guest of his majesty ‘, and receiving room, food, and board at ‘his majesty’s pleasure’
What a choice the briefly divorced, (off/on/off?), toxic totalitarian Liberals and NP Mobsters faced. Despite the Liberals being much reduced to being a provincial and rural rump, with even a new leader, we must remember that leopards very rarely, if ever, change their spots. Supercilious, simplistic, superstitious Sus(s)an, doesn’t inspire much confidence that she will change her spots, nor the rabble, which she is now the boss of.. Also, if you remove the Nationals’ percentage of the first preference vote cast for the LNP. usually about 5-9%, which effectively gives the Liberals not much above 20% first preference votes, dangerously close to being regarded as a minor party. What do others think? Also, it is worth remembering that in Wills, Sue Bolton received about 8.06% first preference votes, almost double the 2022 result, and in Cooper, Kath Larkin received about 9.6%, from the figures I saw. These results for committed socialists would have been impossible 40-50 years ago. IN SHORT, WE, THE SOCIALISTS, HAVE ARRIVED. AND WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY. YOU ARE STUCK WITH US!!!!!!
Moira seems to have some pretty solid financials behind her. She has allegedly offered to pause a substantial part of her claim against her former leader in return for guaranteed preselection next time around. Dale Carnegie anyone?
If Labour and the Greens could disentangle the trans human rights issues (same as all our human rights) from the astroturf big pharma trans movement then Deeming and other right-wingers would not be in a position to gain political credibility by saying ordinary things like if women (female bodies) and men (male bodies) are in the same competition it is not possible to have fair sport, or kids and teens do not have fixed identities and it is not sensible to give way to their demands for drugs that have a high risk of preventing development of fertility, orgasms, adult cognition and strong bones. Etc. Please note that 1/Growing major sporting bodies are ending males competing against females and 2/there’s research based evidence accepted by e.g. health systems of Finland, Sweden, UK and France. In my experience most gender critical feminists are from the left – there’s plenty of evidence of this from the UK Tribunals – the cases have come from black lesbian human rights lawyers, lefty criminologists etc.
Please note that “UK anti-trans rights activist” Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is actually a pro-women’s rights activists and, like Deeming, she has no connection with the Melbourne neo-Nazis though she is, I think, a working class UK conservative.
With these religious groups being welcomed into the liberal party, it would seem that we may be on our way to our own maga 252? . Wake up Australia.