#vicpol

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/09/04/icac-nsw-liberals-reformers-victoria-labor/ " It’s hard not to be deeply depressed about the future of New South Wales, with the state’s Liberal Party being comprehensively demolished by the extended farce on show at the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings. The NSW Liberals were the one mainland branch of the party that had its act together. The WA and SA Liberals have been wiped out. The “Liberal” in “Liberal National Party” in Queensland is there purely ironically. The Victorian Liberals spent the best part of a quarter-century tearing themselves apart, with much of the past decade given over to Christian fundamentalist entryists trying to seize control and turn the state into Alabama on the Yarra. But in NSW, where actual liberals retained power and worked in an occasionally uneasy but effective alliance with various sections of the right, the party delivered three terms of better-than-average government — for all its terrible baggage of pork-barrelling and jobs for mates, it was still fiscally disciplined, socially progressive, pro-transparency and climate-friendly when it faced the voters in 2023. Next March, the same party will limp to the polls wondering if One Nation — once it finishes wiping out the Nationals in the regions — will come for them in the outer suburbs, too. No wonder senior figures are already bailing out. All that voters will remember about the Liberals by then is a succession of seemingly interchangeable Perrottets, parliamentary committees undermined by their own members, factory-reset phones, “I don’t recall” elevated to mantra status and barely pubescent man-children parading as Jesus’ personal hit squad. Are they laughably incompetent liars, or possessed of Alan Bond-level amnesia? Either way, you wouldn’t let them run a chook raffle. And all this is in service of a religious war aimed not at Labor, and not even at the despised moderates within their party, but at the “traitors” of the centre-right. Mrs Nassif, you like? It’s not the whole story, but the destabilising factional conflicts launched by Christian zealots — people dedicated to smashing their own party colleagues — are key to understanding where Victoria went off the rails. With the Victorian Liberals neutered by the disruption serially inflicted by the sort of Christians who think the New Testament is too woke, Victoria was reduced to a one-party state in which Victorian Labor could do — and spend — what it liked. The result was an outfit that even Labor figures now describe as “a morally bankrupt and corrupt government”. Don’t think the wrecking of the NSW Liberals could lead to the same outcome in that state under NSW Labor? Obeid. Macdonald. Tripodi. Kelly. Still think it can’t happen? The risibly named “Reformers”, perched on the far right of the NSW Liberals, seem to have looked at the mayhem caused by a generation of reactionary activists among their Victorian colleagues and, rather than seeing it as a guarantee of electoral oblivion to be avoided like an appropriately biblical plague, instead thought: “Hold my beer.” In both cases and in both states, the hollowed-out nature of the major party branches leaves them prey to entryists, self-aggrandisers and the outright corrupt. But simply throwing around money in defiance of electoral laws and basic good sense tends only to get you a visit from your local anti-corruption body. Smart operators understand how to embed themselves in the entire worldview of politicians so that anything harmful to their interests becomes unthinkable. In agendas, there is minimal difference between Jean Nassif and, say, Clubs NSW or the NSW branch of the Australian Hotels Association — nobbling regulators and preventing tighter regulation is core business for them, no matter what trail of lost savings and ruined lives they leave in their wake. Nassif’s amateurish efforts and $2 million, however, got him nothing. Meanwhile, over the past decade in political donations, Clubs NSW’s $1.58 million and the NSW Australian Hotels Association’s $2.5 million have — a brief lapse under the Perrottet government aside — won them virtual immunity from meaningful regulation, and all without the inconvenience of an ICAC appearance or extended stay in Lebanon. Only federal regulator AUSTRAC, with its annoying insistence on following the fragrant smell of freshly laundered money, poses a significant threat to the pokies palaces in NSW, as it did to the Crown and Star casino chains. The latter, teetering on the edge of oblivion despite the best efforts of the Minns government, is currently begging for mercy and a $300 million discount on the money-laundering fine AUSTRAC is seeking. An invidious choice for NSW voters next March, then: a party that has formalised corruption into business as usual, or an outfit where factional meetings require a factory reset on your phone. What chance that late 2030s will see a reluctantly convened royal commission running a ruler over the excesses of the late 2020s? Bernard Keane is Crikey’s politics editor. Before that he was Crikey’s Canberra press gallery correspondent, covering politics, national security and economics" #auspol #vicpol #nswpol #HahahahaLiebs

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/victorian-liberals-make-campaign-promise-to-bring-back-the-level-crossings/ The Victorian Liberal party have this morning revealed their intention to commission a report to supporting the call to bring back the level crossings. Looking to pick up at least 16 seats at the upcoming election the Vic Libs are digging deep. After weeks of cooking the Labor government for alleged corruption within Victoria's Big Build infrastructure projects the Liberals have decided to go a step beyond canning the current projects and look into reversing the completed projects. One Liberal insider spoke with The Advocate about the party’s plan. “If the party can make it to the election without suing itself out of existence that’s a win” “As a party we’ve identified the importance of standing in the way of every major infrastructure project in the state but there’s always room for improvement” “Bringing back the level crossings would create thousands of jobs and the traffic congestion that level crossings create would encourage more people to use the toll roads,” they said. Though the report has not formally commenced the party may have already begun looking for construction hire organizations. “Once the report is completed, the party will have a better idea of the logistics” “But it’s blatantly clear from hiring unionised Labour is far too costly” “If we hire non-unionised Labour who will work in when it’s pissing down or hot enough to fry an egg on the railway track the tax payer won’t pay a dime more than what we say they are worth,” they said with a disconcerting tone of excitement. More to come. #vicpol #hahahahaliebs

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/in-bringing-a-machine-gun-to-a-knife-fight-deeming-has-set-back-the-cause-of-women-20260707-p60de9.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

For someone who says she wants the world to be a safer place for women and girls, Moira Deeming sure has a funny way of going about it.

After all, it took less than 24 hours for police to dismiss the Victorian MP’s allegation that her colleague, Matthew Guy, put her in “some kind of headlock” at a community function on May 23. By any metric, that’s an extraordinarily fast exoneration. Video footage appears to show that Guy instead placed his hand on Deeming’s shoulder and the two leaned towards one another briefly to speak in a loud room.

On Tuesday afternoon, almost two weeks on from the complaint being made public, Deeming posted a video message to her supporters on Facebook. In the comments section, she said she had never used the word “violent” in her report to police. Yet in text messages to colleagues, Deeming described Guy’s grip as feeling “like someone smashed me in the base of my skull with a wine bottle – but it was Matthew Guy grabbing me violently in some kind of headlock”.

Given the pair already had what Deeming described as a “very hostile” relationship before the function, it’s entirely possible that her experience was one of intense discomfort and violation but a criminal offence it does not make.

Deeming, who is a survivor of child sexual abuse, is on the record saying that one of the reasons she went into politics is because she is “driven by a desire to make sure other children and women don’t suffer like I did”.

What Deeming is either failing to realise or choosing to ignore is that in bringing a machine gun to a knife fight, she’s not just shooting her own credibility. Instead, she’s wounding the very people she has said so many times she wants to protect.

When she was suspended from the Liberal Party in 2023, Deeming told Peta Credlin in an interview with Sky News: “I know what it’s like to be vulnerable, the consequences of being vulnerable, and having no power, and having no voice, and not being able to stop men from coming near you, and even worse, is a horrible feeling”.

But if making an exaggerated claim of gendered violence is bad, doing so against a male colleague within an environment like the Liberal Party – which doesn’t have the best track record on being a hospitable place for women, or the most progressive on women’s issues – is infinitely worse. And her refusal to apologise to Guy, before she headed to the Supreme Court in a last ditch attempt to stop her exasperated colleagues giving her the boot, would be a new level of self-immolation if it didn’t injure so many other women in the process.

Women already struggle to be believed when reporting an assault against a powerful man or colleague. Even after a Federal Court judge found in 2024 that on the balance of probabilities former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann raped his then-colleague Brittany Higgins, a small but vocal group of people still believe she is a liar and that the assault did not happen – even though research consistently shows false allegations of sexual assault are extraordinarily rare. Deeming’s claim has inadvertently bolstered this doubt.

It will legitimise the misguided belief among those who question a victim and their credibility that false allegations are as common as assaults themselves. How easy will it be for these same people to discredit the next woman who comes forward with a legitimate allegation of physical or sexual abuse? How many women will not have the confidence to disclose that violence, or report the matter to their employer or the police for fear of not being believed?

The Liberals are already haemorrhaging voters to One Nation – a party that has spent a decade arguing that the Family Court of Australia should be dismantled, in large part because Pauline Hanson believes women use the system to make false allegations of violence against men to punish them. The timing of Deeming’s allegation and subsequent obstinacy couldn’t be worse.

• Katy Hall is a senior editor and regular columnist.

#vicpol #hahahahaliebs #womenssafety