A spirit of compromise has allowed the Victorian Liberals to avoid either expelling Moira Deeming, the conservative Christian upper house member, or undermining John Pesutto the party leader who had called for her to be removed.
Instead, Deeming, who attended an anti-trans rally a week and a half ago, has been given a nine-month suspension.
The Guardian described the party room gathering that made the decision as a “marathon two-hour meeting. They were right.
The progressive paper said it was a test for Pesutto “who took over the leadership following November’s election loss, vowing to bring the party back to the centre.
“On this account, it’s clear he’s failed after earlier vowing to make no compromise. So expect the division between the party room’s socially liberal and conservative members will continue.”
Deeming was contrite, writng to party MPs “I want you all to know that I have learned many painful lessons from this experience, and that I deeply regret the trouble this has caused my state and federal colleagues and the wider party membership.
“And also, that my offer to publicly back the current leadership team if the vote to expel me fails, still stands,” she said. (Her letter was reported in The Australian.)
“While the decision to not expel Deeming is correct, the Victorian Liberal Party has shown that it stands for nothing,” an Australian Christian Lobby statement said. “The nine-month suspension is an inappropriate and knee-jerk reaction which has no relationship to the alleged offence. No evidence was produced to link her to the group and she publicly testified that she has no affiliation with them.”
The tensions between Liberals will continue. But on the issue for which Deeming attended the rally, transgender tights, there is no “centre” yet.
Medical experts still debate the harms or otherwise of young persons transitioning their gender. The Cass report in Britain – which called for the closure of the Gender Identity Development Service at the Tavistock clinic – found a lack of consensus. The report found, “There is not a consistent view among the professionals participating in the panel and questionnaire about the nature of gender dysphoria and therefore the role of assessment for children and young people experiencing gender dysphoria.
“Some clinicians felt that assessment should be focused on whether medical interventions are an appropriate course of action for the individual. Other clinicians believe that assessment should seek to make a differential diagnosis, ruling out other potential causes of the child or young person’s distress.”
Local Westmead Children’s Hospital research has reinforced this second point.
The immediate effect of the Deeming party room decision will be for both sides the feel somewhat hard done by.
Pesutto did not get the affirmation of his leadership that he sought in bringing this crisis moment on. Deeming has been suspended.
But more positively, it does signal that evangelical Christians are welcome in the Liberal party – Deeming is a member of good standing in the Presbyterian church of Victoria.
The Other Cheek believes that Christians should be found in the other two major parties, Labor and Green, and they are. But for many Christians, a clear majority according to the national Church Life Survey, the coalition is their political home.
Pushing Christians who support the Coalition towards the minor parties is not in the interests of the Libs. But that’s not the concern of this column. Pushing Christians towards the minor parties has two other effects.
- It effectively means less of a Christian voice in the parliaments. The NSW upper house results will show all the Christian-identified groups missing out. No Lyle Shelton, Silvan Nile ( who had a joint ticket with her husband Fred), Ricardo Bosi, or Milton Caine, all remnants of the old Christian Democratic Party, missed out. Some Christians will still want to run distinctively Christian parties, but they will need to be patient. It will take a couple of elections to begin to get a quote in even the easiest upper-house chambers.
2. If Christians are pushed out of the major parties, it makes us part of an increasingly polarised society. Identifying Christians with parties to the coalition’s right will do nothing to help spread the gospel.
For that reason being far more careful about who gets asked up onto a platform at a rally (the Sovereign Citizens’ movement at the anti-trans rally, for example) – as well as resisting uninvited guests (the Nazis who turned up in black) is a lesson for Moira Deeming. She has probably got the hint.
I find it interesting that you state Moira Deeming “attended” and “Anti Trans” event. She absolutely did not. She attended a “Let Women Speak” rally about Biological Women’s rights to safe spaces for them selves and their daughters. To be Pro Women, does not automatically mean “anti Trans” and the language you and others in the media use, continues to inflame tensions and cause division. The level of violence is ever increasing and you/others in the media, hold some responsibility for that with this type of biased reporting. Please seek to be accurate in your articles. And not throw fuel on a fire, using I suspect, deliberately misleading wording.
Thanks Jennifer, you took the words right out of my mouth.