It has become the never-ending story; the continuous madness that is known as the Victorian Liberal Party. While Labor has been in power for what seems like an eternity now, the Libs have been such useless wonders that all they can do is fight among themselves, while Labor continues to destroy the state.
Well, yet another emergency meeting was called yesterday morning, with more challengers to the Pesutto reign of error, a vote on the reinstatement of expelled MP Moira Deeming, and hopefully, a fresh start of sorts for this beleaguered and too often woke party.
So in this latest instalment, we have this: Moira has been reinstated by a vote of 23 to 4, and Brad Battin has now been elected as the Leader of the party. All up there are several hands raised by the Libs for the top job: Brad Battin, Jess Wilson, and Chris Crewther.
Wilson was knocked out in the first round of voting, and then Battin, the shadow police minister, ended up getting the nod. Sam Groth ended up becoming the deputy leader. So we have a new leadership team, and maybe, just maybe, a little bit of hope for the Liberal Party.
Moira Timeline
November 2022 – Moira assumes office in the Victorian Parliament upper house, taking the place of another conservative Christian prolifer, Bernie Finn, also ousted by the Libs.
March 18, 2023, Moira speaks at a pro-women rally, which is gate crashed by a small group of neo-Nazis
March 27, 2024 She is suspended from the Liberal Party
December 12, 2024, The Federal Court finds Pesutto guilty of defaming her, and ordered to pay $315,000 in damages
December 20, 2024 A 14-all vote is the outcome in a readmission vote for Moira, so Pesutto casts the deciding vote against her
December 27, 2024 Another vote, this time with Pesutto replaced as leader and Moira voted back into the Party
November 28, 2026, the next state election to be held
The Fallout
Will anything actually change with the latest moves? Yes, I am thankful that the lame duck and hopeless “leader” Pesutto is gone. Yes, I am glad that Moira is back in, and can hopefully have an impact in making the Liberal Party once again a real Liberal Party, that is a conservative party, and not just a pale imitation of Labor and the Greens.
And one wonders if the new Opposition leader will be one iota better than Pesutto. One can only hope. But there are so few genuine, principled conservate Liberals left in Victoria. So time will tell. The socialist left faction of Labor premiers Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan have utterly devastated this state, and one would think that just about anyone could take them out at the next state election.
Victorians have suffered for so long, with only 4 out of 25 years held by the Libs, and they were both rather hopeless: Ted Baillieu (2010-2013) and Denis Napthine (2013-2014). The state really has become a basket case, and for all this time the main thing the Libs could do is attack one another, and never tough Labor.
Bear in mind that many of those who voted to let Moira back in were the ones who voted to expel her back in March. These folks seem to change with the wind and have no solid and steadfast convictions and principles.
Updates
I will keep updating this article as new developments come to hand, so stay tuned.
Given that crime is such a major issue in Victoria, as well as throughout the nation, it is hoped that law and order can be properly tackled, now that we have a former cop leading the Victorian opposition, and a former cop, Peter Dutton, leading the federal opposition. Taking on this out-of-control crime problem is becoming the need of the hour, along with dealing with the economy and cost of living matters.
As mentioned above, many of the Libs who now voted to turn on Pesutto and reinstate Moira were the same ones who not all that long ago sided with Pesutto as he kicked out Moira! So just where do these Libs actually stand? Do they simply change from day to day, with no real firm beliefs and convictions about anything? As it says in James 1:8, the ‘double minded man is unstable in all his ways’. At the very least, there will be a lot of tension in the Party, and genuine unity will be difficult to achieve and maintain.
I often say that I pray for various leaders that they are either improved or removed. That is, I pray that they radically change for the better (especially in becoming Christians and following God’s values and not the world’s values) or one way or another are removed from office – at least important leadership positions. So Pesutto is now off my list! And two months ago I took three political leaders off in one go, as Biden, Harris, and Walz were all knocked off their perches in one election.
Imagine just one conservative, Christian pro-life young woman changing the face of Victorian politics! The power of one. She has endured so much grief, opposition, and ugly attacks, but she stood her ground and showed great courage and conviction. That is more that can be said of far too many Liberals!
In the coming weeks we will see who is in the new shadow cabinet. Battin says he will pick people on their merit, not based on their political faction. Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see who gets in. And it will also be interesting to see what becomes of Pesutto. Will he resign, or hang around, or what?
As for Pesutto, a piece penned by Peter Barnes a few days ago has a nice paragraph on what we have been dealing with:
Most disturbing is the fourth lesson, that this is not simply a passing problem for Victorian Liberals. Pesutto is simply the latest in a conga line of hollow men – from Rupert Hamer, Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu, Matthew Guy, Michael O’Brien, to the present dear leader. To which we can add a man like the present premier of Queensland who has forbidden any discussion on abortion in the Queensland parliament for the next four years. In modern political parlance, ‘moderate’ is code for ‘spineless’.
At a press conference after the vote, Moira was asked, “You’ve championed women’s rights. Are you disappointed there’s no women in the leadership team?”. She replied: “I won’t be taking lectures on the gender balance of our team from anyone who can’t even define what a woman is. We have amazing women in our team….”
The reporter then asked: “So you accept the gender mix as being fair and reasonable for the party?” Moira answered, “I don’t care about a gender mix, I care about merit.”
