The Liberals, it seems, can\u2019t resist returning to damaging infighting even in the one part of the country where things have been going quite encouragingly for them. <\/p>\n
Once again the Victorian Liberals are caught up in another chapter of that extraordinary saga, \u201cDoings of Deeming\u201d. <\/p>\n
The row over the controversial upper house member\u2019s 2023 appearance at an anti-trans rally she partly organised, and which neo-Nazis attended, eventually cost then-leader John Pesutto his position. He lost a defamation action<\/a> that Deeming brought, and it embroiled the Liberals in an expensive ongoing battle over a loan provided to keep him from bankruptcy, which would have seen him out of parliament. <\/p>\n More recently, Deeming lost her preselection in March, only to be restored after the replacement candidate ran into trouble. <\/p>\n Now the most bizarre episode of Deeming Doings is in full swing, distracting attention from the opposition\u2019s attack on a government that is on the ropes on multiple issues ahead of the November state election. <\/p>\n Deeming accused another former leader, Matthew Guy, of assault, alleging he\u2019d put her in \u201csome kind of headlock\u201d at a community function in May. In an incident captured on video, Guy had placed a hand on Deeming to draw her closer when she couldn\u2019t hear him above the noise. <\/p>\n Deeming reported the matter to the police; who last week announced no offence had been committed. Guy has demanded an apology; Deeming adamantly refuses to give one, regardless of the police finding. Later she said she misunderstood the \u201ctechnical meaning\u201d of \u201cheadlock\u201d. (Who knew there was a \u201ctechnical\u201d definition of headlock, outside wrestling and the like?) <\/p>\n The Victorian shadow attorney-general James Newbury on Tuesday foreshadowed consequences for Deeming. \u201cI expect and I think the team expects action to be taken,\u201d he said. \u201cI think any good person would have apologised.\u201d<\/p>\n Speculation was running that Deeming will be deselected. As always with Deeming, the Liberals are in a pickle. Tough action could again have Deeming made a martyr in the eye of her supporters. <\/p>\n She also might go off to One Nation, as prominent Victorian Liberal figure Colleen Harkin did recently. That could be a relief to some of Deeming\u2019s frustrated colleagues, although One Nation sources are cautious. Deeming might be too hot even for them to handle.<\/p>\n The odds of the state Liberals winning the 16 extra seats for majority government are long, and One Nation is a fresh complication. But leader Jess Wilson has put them in the hunt for a strong result. This is despite Wilson being in her first term and so inexperienced. <\/p>\n That this blow-up over nothing has occurred just underlines how difficult it is to keep the dysfunctional Victorian division of the Liberal Party on track, even when there is a prize in sight. <\/p>\n Of course things are worse (albeit in different ways) at the federal level. As if two more bad polls<\/a> published at the weekend were not enough, the party has now indulged in a pile-on following shadow minister Melissa McIntosh suggesting the Liberals need a \u201crebrand\u201d. <\/p>\n Frontbenchers as well as federal president Tony Abbott instantly rebuffed the idea. <\/p>\n Abbott \u2013 reinforcing some Liberals\u2019 fears he will talk publicly too much \u2013 said it \u201cwould hardly be the Liberal Party if it weren\u2019t the Liberal Party\u201d.<\/p>\n