{"id":574554,"date":"2026-03-30T17:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574554\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T17:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T17:02:10","slug":"victorian-liberals-to-hold-another-preselection-after-candidate-who-defeated-moira-deeming-withdraws-victorian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574554\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Liberals to hold another preselection after candidate who defeated Moira Deeming withdraws | Victorian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Victorian Liberals will hold another preselection convention<\/a> to elect a candidate for a top spot on the party\u2019s upper house ticket, after it was revealed the man who replaced Moira Deeming wrote a court character reference for a friend who was convicted of grooming a 15-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

Dinesh Gourisetty, who defeated Deeming <\/a>on Sunday in a preselection vote for the party\u2019s candidates for the western metropolitan region at the upcoming November election, has told the executive he did not want to step down after the revelations.<\/p>\n

But Victorian Liberal leader, Jess Wilson, said he was \u201cnot welcome\u201d on her team and party president, Philip Davis, issued a statement on Monday afternoon saying Gourisetty had withdrawn his candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter yesterday\u2019s preselection convention had concluded, the Liberal party<\/a> received information concerning Mr Dinesh Gourisetty which is considered to be of a serious nature,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

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Davis said the executive had resolved that a further convention would be needed for the top spot on the ticket and that Gourisetty would not be eligible to participate. It is unclear whether Deeming will contest again.<\/p>\n

In a letter seen by Guardian Australia, Gourisetty wrote that he did not know Kashyap Patel would plead guilty to charges of grooming, sexually assaulting and transmitting indecent communication to a child under 16 at the time he wrote the character reference in 2024.<\/p>\n

The charges related to the then 40-year-old married father of two\u2019s grooming and assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2021. He was convicted and sentenced to nine months\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

In his sentencing remarks the judge, Peter Rozen, found Patel was a \u201cman of otherwise good character as set out in the three character references filed with the court\u201d, including one from Gourisetty, who was described as \u201ca good friend of four years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gourisetty said he had been \u201cled to believe\u201d Patel was \u201ccontesting the charges and maintaining his innocence\u201d at the time he signed the letter, which he added was \u201cdrafted by a lawyer and reflected only my personal experience of him as a party member and volunteer\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no knowledge of the seriousness or full nature of the allegations. I acted in good faith, based on what I knew at the time,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be absolutely clear \u2013 I strongly and unequivocally condemn the actions for which Mr Patel has now been convicted. Those actions are unacceptable, and I do not in any way support or excuse them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gourisetty\u2019s letter also notes it was not without precedent, citing former Tony Abbott and John Howard also having \u201cprovided character references or expressed personal support for individuals facing serious allegations, based on their own knowledge and belief at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Both former prime ministers wrote references for Cardinal George Pell<\/a> after he was found guilty of five counts of child sexual abuse in 2019. Pell\u2019s conviction was overturned by the high court<\/a> in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI respectfully ask that my actions also be viewed through the same lens of fairness and intent,\u201d Gourisetty wrote.<\/p>\n

He said he had worked \u201cday and night\u201d for the Liberals for 15 years and was heartbroken he was being \u201cpushed towards withdrawing, and even advised to consider resigning from the party I have served with dedication for so many years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gourisetty said he had indicated he might consider stepping aside in a \u201cmoment of distress\u201d on Monday morning, but he had not formally withdrawn his candidacy and did not intend to.<\/p>\n

His account varies with that of Davis, who wrote in an email to the executive committee shortly before 11am that Gourisetty had \u201cadvised me this morning he has withdrawn as the candidate\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also puts him on a collision course with Wilson, who said in a statement on Monday: \u201cMr Gourisetty is not welcome on my team. I have made that clear to the party organisation this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victorian opposition Leader Jess Wilson says Dinesh Gourisetty is \u2018not welcome on my team\u2019. Photograph: James Ross\/AAP<\/p>\n

Wilson had lobbied delegates to vote for Deeming at Sunday\u2019s preselection convention.<\/p>\n

According to several of Gourisetty\u2019s supporters, he secured preselection with 39 votes, compared with Deeming\u2019s 26, while Trung Luu, another Liberal MP representing the region, received three. Luu retained the second position on the ballot, after a separate vote which Deeming did not contest.<\/p>\n

Gourisetty had previously failed to win preselection in 2022, in part due to breaches of the food safety act he pleaded guilty to in 2019.<\/p>\n

This time, however, sources said he had the support of multiple branches in Melbourne\u2019s western suburbs and within the party\u2019s executive committee, which had skewed moderate under Davis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A member of the executive committee, not aligned to Davis, emailed the rest of the executive committee on Monday, accusing the \u201cthe party\u2019s factional left\u201d of backing a \u201cpedophile supporter\u201d.<\/p>\n

The member wrote that \u201cditching Moira was always going to be a disaster\u201d, adding this was \u201cbefore knowing about the court document I received\u201d. They also questioned the vetting process, asking \u201cwtf\u201d the committee responsible for candidate selection was doing.<\/p>\n

A senior Liberal source said there was \u201cno way\u201d Gourisetty would have been preselected if this information had been known and claimed the distribution of the material after the vote was designed to cause \u201cmaximum damage\u201d to the moderate grouping on the executive committee.<\/p>\n

Gourisetty has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Victorian Liberals will hold another preselection convention to elect a candidate for a top spot on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-574554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}