{"id":758729,"date":"2026-06-25T05:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758729\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:52:12","slug":"former-liberal-leader-matthew-guy-denies-assaulting-mp-moira-deeming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758729\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Liberal leader Matthew Guy denies assaulting MP Moira Deeming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Liberal leader Matthew Guy is vehemently denying Moira Deeming’s allegation he put her in a headlock at a community event, with security vision showing Mr Guy placing his hand on her back during a conversation.<\/p>\n

Mr Guy is considering legal advice to sue his party room colleague for defamation over the assault allegation, which is being investigated by Victoria Police.<\/p>\n

Mrs Deeming first made a complaint to Opposition Leader Jess Wilson’s office before going to police.<\/p>\n

Video of the interaction, obtained by the ABC, appears to show Mr Guy placing his arm on Mrs Deeming’s back to speak with her at the crowded Macedonian community event in Sunshine on May 23.<\/p>\n

\"Moira<\/p>\n

Moira Deeming and Matthew Guy both attended a community event in Melbourne’s west last month. (Facebook: Matthew Guy)<\/p>\n

Ms Wilson on Thursday said it would be inappropriate to comment while police investigate.<\/p>\n

“Like every other Victorian, the parties involved deserve due process, the presumption of innocence and their privacy respected while this is investigated,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I remain focused on issues that matter to Victorians and earning their trust so our state can have a fresh start in November.”<\/p>\n

The Coalition cancelled a planned press conference on Thursday, in what was to be day five of a “fresh start tour” of every electorate in the state.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands Ms Wilson’s office sought advice and offered Mrs Deeming three options when she raised the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Options canvassed were making it a criminal matter with Victoria Police, handling it as a workplace matter and having it assessed by the Parliamentary Workplace Standards Commission, or using internal party processes.<\/p>\n

\"Moira<\/p>\n

Both Moira Deeming and Matthew Guy have declined to comment on the allegation. (Facebook: Matthew Guy)<\/p>\n

Liberals the ABC has spoken to have rallied around Mr Guy and believe the CCTV footage exonerates him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MPs were privately bemoaning that internal disputes again threaten to destabilise the party when the Coalition has a shot of forming government in just five months.<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson confirmed the allegation was reported to the force on June 16.<\/p>\n

“The woman left the area following the incident and did not require medical attention,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The investigation into the incident remains ongoing and police believe the people involved are known to each other.”<\/p>\n

Mr Guy and Mrs Deeming have both declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Liberal leader Matthew Guy is vehemently denying Moira Deeming’s allegation he put her in a headlock at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[78964,24278,43,4273,362680,362681,280741,44,19828,1158,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-758729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alleged","tag-assault","tag-headlines","tag-liberal","tag-macedonian","tag-matthew-guy","tag-moira-deeming","tag-news","tag-party","tag-police","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758729","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=758729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}