{"id":846540,"date":"2026-08-07T07:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846540\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T07:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T07:56:14","slug":"victorian-politics-anger-over-liberal-partys-replacement-for-moira-deeming-in-melbournes-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/846540\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian politics: Anger over Liberal Party\u2019s replacement for Moira Deeming in Melbourne\u2019s west"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Angus<\/p>\n

Updated August 7, 2026 \u2014 3:16pm,first published 12:22pm<\/p>\n

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Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell has replaced ex-Liberal MP Moira Deeming<\/a> for the top billing on the party\u2019s upper house ticket in Melbourne\u2019s west, all but gaining a place in Victoria\u2019s next parliament.<\/p>\n

Campbell secured the No.1 position for the Western Metropolitan Region electorate against incumbent MP Trung Luu through a vote of 12-7 among the Liberals\u2019 state executive on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

\"MelbourneMelbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell.Justin McManus<\/p>\n

Luu, who has nominated for the No.2 position, is now at risk of losing his seat at the November state election due to One Nation\u2019s growing appeal on Melbourne\u2019s western fringe.<\/p>\n

But Campbell\u2019s appointment has been criticised as lacking a legitimate connection to the region because she lives in the inner-north suburb of Brunswick, outside the sprawling electorate, which takes in Williamstown, Hoppers Crossing, Sunbury, Footscray and Caroline Springs.<\/p>\n

During the 2023 federal byelection, Campbell was the Liberal candidate for the seat of Aston, which the party lost to Labor<\/a>, and in 2021 she also unsuccessfully sought preselection for the federal seat of Casey<\/a>, another outer-east electorate.<\/p>\n

Campbell grew up in Sydney as an only child to parents who migrated from Calcutta in the 1970s, and attended the exclusive all-girls school Pymble Ladies\u2019 College.<\/p>\n

Her architect father ran a business in Australia, but it was wiped out during the 1990s recession. The ensuing financial strain saw her parents start a food business.<\/p>\n

Moving to Melbourne, Campbell did an arts\/law degree at Monash University, where she joined the Liberal Party. Upon graduating, she worked for the law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth before becoming a barrister.<\/p>\n

In 2020, she was elected to the City of Melbourne Council and was re-elected four years later as deputy mayor on the \u201cTeam Reece\u201d ticket as running mate and second-in-command to Lord Mayor Nick Reece. If Campbell is elected to parliament in the November state election, she must resign from council, which will force a costly byelection<\/a> to replace her.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Roshena<\/a><\/p>\n

Though her parents at one stage lived in Point Cook, in Melbourne\u2019s south-west, Campbell herself has never lived in the electorate.<\/p>\n

St Albans resident Maria Kerr, who three months ago defected to One Nation after 10 years as a Liberal member, said Campbell\u2019s preselection was \u201cslap in the face to residents of the west\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis latest appointment … is extremely disappointing, and I\u2019ve had an overwhelming reaction from my local community,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cPeople are not happy, they want people that are authentically from the west.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr is the deputy mayor of Brimbank City Council but spoke to The Age as a resident and former Liberal who in 2022 contested the then-safe Labor state seat of St Albans, and said the Liberal Party was too focused on winning inner-city seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the party\u2019s state executive] have lost sight of the forgotten people in the western suburbs, the forgotten people in the outer south-east, and the outer north, and that is evident after this appointment,\u201d Kerr said.<\/p>\n

On X, Deeming\u2019s husband Andrew said the Liberal Party\u2019s decision to parachute Campbell into the electorate was \u201cmore contempt \u2026 for the voters of the west\u201d.<\/p>\n

Zareh Ghazarian, a political scientist at Monash University, said as the No.1 candidate on the Liberals\u2019 ticket, Campbell should easily secure a seat in the upper house at the state election.<\/p>\n

But he believes the party\u2019s chance of winning two upper house seats in the region \u2013 and, therefore, Luu\u2019s political future \u2013 is under threat from One Nation.<\/p>\n

Ghazarian said Campbell, who is the daughter of Indian migrants and has a public profile on the City of Melbourne Council, was a strong choice for Melbourne\u2019s diverse west.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the things the Liberal Party in particular has self-reflected and talked about in the past has been … who\u2019s representing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"DeputyDeputy Lord Mayor Roshena Campbell with Lord Mayor Nick Reece in 2024.Justin McManus<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you have to think presenting this high-profile individual under the Liberal banner will go well for securing the seat for Liberals.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Campbell said her parents lived in Point Cook, and she had spent \u201cmany years volunteering at the Footscray soup kitchen\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents of the west are hardworking families from all backgrounds, and they have been let down by a bad government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Firebrand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLocals in the west have been neglected for too long by this Labor government, with rising crime, rising costs and a government who can\u2019t even do the basics, like fix the pothole-riddled roads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell added that the west was Melbourne\u2019s multicultural heart, and that she was \u201cpassionate about ensuring our multicultural communities are heard and supported\u201d.<\/p>\n

Luu, who as a five-year-old fled Vietnam with his family and found refuge in Australia, first lived in Sydney and Adelaide before settling in Melbourne. He eventually moved to Sunshine North, where he has lived since for two decades. He was elected to Brimbank Council in 2020, and into the Victorian upper house in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moira Deeming was dumped as a Liberal candidate in a unanimous decision by the party\u2019s state executive last month after she made unsubstantiated allegations<\/a> against her then-colleague, Matthew Guy.<\/p>\n

The state executive were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts<\/a> on email or turn on notifications in the app.<\/p>\n

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\"AngusAngus Delaney<\/a> is a state political reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated August 7, 2026 \u2014 3:16pm,first published 12:22pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-846540","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\/846540","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=846540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}