Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto has been removed as party leader in a meeting this morning. Brad Battin won the leadership contest, with Nepean MP Sam Groth to serve as deputy. Victorian Liberal MPs have also voted to readmit MP Moira Deeming to the parliamentary team.
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00:00The first order of business is a motion actually brought on by John Persuto initially to reinstate
00:08Moira Deeming.
00:09She was the exiled MP that he forced out of the party after she attended an anti-trans
00:13rights rally.
00:14She later sued him for defamation and it was successful, which has triggered why we're
00:18here again today.
00:19There's been questions about his leadership, questions about his judgement, for his resistance
00:24to having her back in the fold, for failing to apologise.
00:26He's now moved it, but it looks like it's going to be too late.
00:29So people, detractors of John Persuto, will use today's meeting to move a spill against
00:34him.
00:35And then there is three MPs, which is 10% of the party room, have put up their hand
00:40to be leader.
00:41Brad Batten, Jess Wilson and Chris Crutha, the former federal MP.
00:45But MPs are lamenting the fact that they're talking about this on December 27th, when
00:50most Victorians and Australians are on holidays.
00:52Let's have a listen.
00:54I didn't want this meeting to take place today, but it is what it is.
00:59And you know, my heart this morning isn't actually in the Liberal Party room.
01:04My heart this morning is in the western region of Victoria, where there are fires ravaging
01:10the Grampians community.
01:12And as soon as whatever happens today is done and dusted, we've got to move on and focus
01:18on what Victorians need us to focus on, like keeping our community safe at this otherwise
01:23challenging time.
01:24Richard, can you give us a little bit more of the background as to how we got here?
01:29Well, yeah, this is a deeply divided Victorian Liberal Party and it has been for the best
01:35part of a decade, really.
01:37This latest has come to a head because two years ago, John Persuto won the leadership
01:41from Brad Batten by one vote after the crushing 2022 election defeat by Labor Party under
01:47Daniel Andrews.
01:48And there's been a simmering tension between the two broader factions, the Conservatives
01:52and the Moderates, about the direction the party should be taking.
01:54But also it's John Persuto's decision to suspend and then try and expel Moira Deeming after
02:00she attended that rally I mentioned earlier, that has really set the, I guess, been a lightning
02:05rod for anger, not just with the MPs, but the membership of the Liberal Party.
02:08And what's really fascinating about today's spill motion is that for all the key metrics,
02:12John Persuto is doing well.
02:13They're ahead in the polls.
02:15He's ahead as preferred Premier.
02:16Yet this party has decided that the treatment of Moira Deeming is not good enough.
02:20They want a better direction.
02:21They want more communication.
02:22And it's just sort of another example of how deeply divided they are.
02:27Now this will come to a head, come to a head now.
02:30What will happen is there'll be a spill motion shortly, we expect.
02:33There'll be a vote.
02:34It'll be whittled down to two people and they'll have a new leader.
02:37John Persuto is not expected to stand if there is a leadership spill.
02:40But it also puts in question, what is the direction of the party?
02:43So it's very, very difficult.
02:44You've got the inner Suburbans and the outer Suburbans talking about which direction they
02:48should go in.
02:49And it really is a continuation of this long-running factional battle.
02:52And we'll see who comes out on top.