{"id":588272,"date":"2026-04-06T03:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588272\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T03:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:06:10","slug":"moira-deeming-survives-victorian-liberal-preselection-battle-after-rivals-withdraw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588272\/","title":{"rendered":"Moira Deeming survives Victorian Liberal preselection battle after rivals withdraw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has secured top spot on the party’s upper-house ticket for the Western Metropolitan Region after a chaotic preselection battle.<\/p>\n

Mrs Deeming secured preselection after the other candidates withdrew from the running.<\/p>\n

She previously dropped her candidacy after the party overlooked her for businessman and Indian community leader Dinesh Gourisetty<\/a>, who garnered support from the party’s moderate wing.<\/p>\n

But Mr Gourisetty was forced to step aside when it was revealed he had provided a character reference for a now-convicted child sex offender, triggering another preselection contest.<\/p>\n

Mrs Deeming was the only eligible nominee for the position.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, she thanked everyone who had supported her \u2014 including state Liberal leader Jess Wilson \u2014 adding she looked forward to exposing “Labor’s callous betrayal of hard-working families” ahead of the November election.<\/p>\n

“When we win, I will work tirelessly to restore good governance to this great state of Victoria,” she told AAP.<\/p>\n

The outspoken politician has repeatedly made headlines since she was preselected by the party in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Meeting<\/p>\n

Moira Deeming and former Liberal leader John Pesutto were at the centre of a legal battle following her expulsion from the party.<\/p>\n

The former high school teacher was suspended from the Liberals after she attended a 2023 Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.<\/p>\n

She was later expelled from the Liberal party room after she threatened legal action against then-leader John Pesutto.<\/p>\n

The former party boss was ultimately found to have defamed her by implying she was associated with neo-Nazis and ordered to pay $2.3 million in legal costs.<\/p>\n

Mrs Deeming was welcomed back into the parliamentary party in December 2024 and named its representative for Melbourne’s western suburbs.<\/p>\n

She offered to defer some of Mr Pesutto’s legal bill in exchange for conditions, including her preselection, but the proposition was rebuffed.<\/p>\n

The state Liberals’ administrative committee agreed to lend Mr Pesutto $1.55 million to settle his debt to Mrs Deeming and avoid bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The loan prompted an ongoing legal challenge from a group of breakaway Liberals.<\/p>\n

AAP\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has secured top spot on the party’s upper-house ticket for the Western Metropolitan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4268,43,127355,167425,4273,280741,44,280742,41,39,42,40,287556],"class_list":{"0":"post-588272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-election","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-jess-wilson","11":"tag-john-pesutto","12":"tag-liberal","13":"tag-moira-deeming","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-preselection","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-when-is-the-victorian-election"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588272","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=588272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}