View from The Hill: Even when they’re doing quite well, Liberals find a way to put their foot in it

The Liberals, it seems, can’t resist returning to damaging infighting even in the one part of the country where things have been going quite encouragingly for them.

Once again the Victorian Liberals are caught up in another chapter of that extraordinary saga, “Doings of Deeming”.

The row over the controversial upper house member’s 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 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.

More recently, Deeming lost her preselection in March, only to be restored after the replacement candidate ran into trouble.

Now the most bizarre episode of Deeming Doings is in full swing, distracting attention from the opposition’s attack on a government that is on the ropes on multiple issues ahead of the November state election.

Deeming accused another former leader, Matthew Guy, of assault, alleging he’d put her in “some kind of headlock” 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’t hear him above the noise.

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 “technical meaning” of “headlock”. (Who knew there was a “technical” definition of headlock, outside wrestling and the like?)

The Victorian shadow attorney-general James Newbury on Tuesday foreshadowed consequences for Deeming. “I expect and I think the team expects action to be taken,” he said. “I think any good person would have apologised.”

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.

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’s frustrated colleagues, although One Nation sources are cautious. Deeming might be too hot even for them to handle.

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.

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.

Of course things are worse (albeit in different ways) at the federal level. As if two more bad polls 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 “rebrand”.

Frontbenchers as well as federal president Tony Abbott instantly rebuffed the idea.

Abbott – reinforcing some Liberals’ fears he will talk publicly too much – said it “would hardly be the Liberal Party if it weren’t the Liberal Party”.

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View from The Hill: Liberals now wedged in tunnel, staring at a sinkhole

Home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said: “People don’t care about the outside packaging, they want the contents of the box; that’s where all the work needs to be done”.

Industry spokesman Andrew Hastie mused on brands more widely:

We’re at a low, but I would be very hesitant about walking away from the Liberal Party as a brand. Coca-Cola is a strong brand; people trust it for whatever reason. I don’t drink a lot of Coke myself, but the Liberals stand for something, and it’s really important that we deliver on policy. That’s what people care about, and we’ve got to diagnose the problems and deliver solutions for those.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson argued “the best word we have is Liberal, because it speaks to a sense of hope about the future, about an Australia where people are in control of their own lives, hard work pays off and people feel a basic sense of respect”.

McIntosh stuck to her position. “I was out with my community on the weekend and we’re pretty blunt out in Penrith [in western Sydney]. […] People have said to me ‘what’s the Liberal Party doing?’” she told Nine.

“I want us to have more cut through on our policies. I worked for John Howard back in the day, and my patch, we were the Howard battlers, we were the Menzies forgotten people, and we’re Tony Tradies. So we are pretty much the heartland of Australia. And when the heartland of Australia tells you that you need to get more cut through to get more voters on your side, then you need to listen to the people.”

McIntosh hasn’t fleshed her alternative “brand”, if she has one. A day after it was floated, the “rebranding” proposition looked little more than another desperate cry.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.