A woman in the Afghan Parliament has been suspended by her political party for the crime of advocating for women’s rights. Oh wait, I’m sorry! Minor typo, it’s not Afghanistan – it’s the Victorian Parliament. Yes, you read that correctly, this happened in Australia, not Afghanistan. The denigration of women has become quite the rage lately. In New Zealand last month we saw prominent activist Poise Parker doused in breakfast juice for having the audacity to speak about women’s rights. And this week in Iran, a man threw yoghurt on two women for having the gall to show their hair (those women have been arrested thank god). And that my friends bring us to the Victorian Liberals and Moira Deeming.
The average Victorian and Australian are looking on in dismay at the whole affair, asking themselves how it came to this. Why is a woman not allowed to speak about women’s issues? All the while there is one small group marvelling at the outcome. A group that openly seeks to destroy the centre and manufacture further polarisation in Australian politics. That group? Neo-Nazis.
Yes, those photogenic fellas, crashing parties, and prancing for the cameras in Melbourne have a plan. Their goals are on the record. Leaders of the Neo-Nazi movement have made it clear that moderate and centre-right voices must be eliminated. It would seem that their appearance at the ‘Let Women Speak’ event in Melbourne in late March 2023 did exactly that. It effectively silenced Moira Deeming. The consequences of Deeming’s punishment are clear: those with a commonly held view on women’s rights need look elsewhere. It has no place in the Liberal Party. This raises the question: Why are the Victorian Liberals doing the work of the Neo-Nazi movement, intentionally or not? Cowardice is one thing, but furthering the cause of far-right ethane nationalism is another altogether.
And where are our federal leaders on this issue, you might ask? Well to be frank, they are all in hiding, with the Federal Liberal Party leader, Peter Dutton, calling for unity amidst the fallout of Deeming’s demise. In perhaps one of the brazen displays of cynical politics over principals, the national leadership of the ‘Liberal’ party remain as silent as a mime in a library while the voice of Australian women gets trampled under the feet of their comrades in the south. United in cowardice, it would appear.
What do they do instead? They fight on Labor’s battleground – the Voice, for example, involves shadowboxing thin air as they attempt to counter a policy platform as nebulous as a fart in a jar. An adept strategist might suggest that the lack of detail is by design, a feature not a bug. A foggy battlefield full of landmines and pitfalls. A debate designed to suck all the oxygen out of the culture war, to lure the worst voices out of the closet, but most importantly, to confuse and curtail conservatives and progressives alike, while protecting Labor from its biggest threat, its crazy left flank.
The biggest threat to Labor is not conservatism, moderates, Christians, or Muslims. It’s not even Libertarians. It might just be science. The issue of biological sex, in all its wonder, continues to wreak political havoc on left-wing parties globally. We saw this play out earlier in the year with Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, resigning after her failed gender reforms drained her authority and eventually her leadership. UK Labor leader Keir Starmer has been drowning in the definition of a woman for over two years now.
And the issue is not going away, nor will it. It turns out people are wedded to the laws of nature. But it’s more than just sex or gender, this is women’s rights. What an opportunity to stand for something worth fighting for! The Australian Liberal Party, if it had any political instincts whatsoever, would sense a very real and present strategic play. And what an opportunity it is.
It’s an opportunity to reframe the Liberal Party and Peter Dutton’s electability, taking the lead on a winning issue ‘Women’s rights’. Granted, this is no small task as Dutton is currently sitting on a 30 per cent deficit as preferred leader.
As alluded to earlier it’s an opportunity to shift the culture war onto a conservative battleground, sucking the oxygen and media attention away from the Voice.
And it’s an opportunity to put principle over party. Yes, the headlines will be laser focused on the party division, but the meta story is one of the greatest political fights of a generation. The silver lining is the lancing of the Boyle that is the Victorian Liberal party. What’s the old saying? You have to break some eggs to make an omelet. Well, those are rotten eggs.
The public will sense the weight of the situation. Throwing a state party under the bus will emphasise the gravitas of the issue at stake. Over time (say an election cycle) it will be read through that lens.
But more than anything it’s the debate that Albanese desperately wants to avoid.
In conclusion, this is not rocket science. The Liberals must condemn the Victorian Liberals openly, emphatically, and without equivocation. Followed by a pledge of support for Moira Deeming again unequivocally and without reference to the puppeteers of the Victorian Liberals. Follow that up with a demand for Albanese to do the same, support the rights of women to speak on women’s issues without being assaulted and abused. Rinse and repeat.
The Liberal Party is at a crossroads. As ‘The voice’ of a woman in the Victorian Liberal Party is not just being suppressed, but openly defamed and vilified, Australia awaits a leader brave enough to have this fight.
Are the Liberal Party up to fight? If not, get out of the way and let the ladies do it for you.
