I feel obliged to bring to the notice of those who do not live in Victoria that at least in that state the Liberal party continues resolutely along its road to obliteration.

It is hard to believe that the most recent disaster could possibly surpass in horror all those that came before it. But it does.

I refer to the decision of the leader of the state party, John Pesutto, to try to expel from the parliamentary party its whip in the upper house, Ms Moira Deeming. In the disaster that followed, Pesutto committed at least five cardinal mistakes.

Pesutto’s first mistake: exaggeration. It all started when Ms Deeming attended a rally outside parliament house in support of women and women’s rights. That can mean a variety of things, but in substance it means accepting what women really want and not going along with the current extremism of the pro-trans movement. Ms Deeming herself maintains she has shown no hostility to trans activists and that she has active supporters in their ranks. Moreover, there seems to be no evidence that she has ever shown any hostility to them or that she supports extremism in any shape or form.

It then appears that some individuals, described as neo-Nazis, turned up at the rally and proceeded to carry on with a Charlie Chaplin-like performance of funny walks, Nazi salutes and general mincing around. That gave rise to Pesutto’s first big mistake, to contend that because you attend a public meeting and, without your knowledge, there is a group of ratbags also attending, you can be said to be actively supporting them and their own particular brand of ratbaggery.

Apart from being an extraordinary leap in logic, it is an appalling denial of Ms Deeming’s rights to attend a public meeting on any side of any issue and speak for or against  it.

And yet Pesutto had the effrontery to move to expel Ms Deeming for having ‘links to extremists, including neo-Nazis and white supremacists’ which she clearly did not.

Pesutto’s second mistake: Over-reaction for no reason.

A normal, rational leader, faced with those facts, and anxious not to create a crisis, would have taken Ms Deeming aside and told her that, having just been elected, her explanation was accepted, but that she should be careful with whom she associated. That would have defused the whole thing. But no, Pesutto had to choose the nuclear option, blow the whole thing out of proportion and move that she be terminated with extreme prejudice, i.e. expelled from the party, which anyone could see would give rise to a major crisis. He certainly got what he wanted.

Pesutto’s third mistake: over-reaction for the wrong reason.

It is clear on all the evidence that Pesutto had by now joined the ranks of those who say that the Liberal party must adopt all of the current popular left-wing positions so that it is not thought of as being ‘right wing’ and that the obliging voters will then simply turn over in bed and vote Liberal in gratitude. In other words, he is on the woke side of politics and thinks that this is the way to salvation. He concedes it is a broad church, but that only left-wing ticket holders should be allowed in. It is equally clear that he thought the whole Deeming issue was a godsend and that he could use it to show just how moderate, woke and trendily left-wing he was by expelling her. Unfortunately for him, what he showed was that if you are a Liberal leader and try to punish a member of your own party from attending and speaking at a public rally, you alienate half of the public because they know the expulsion is unjustified. So he chose the wrong principle and it failed.

Pesutto’s fourth mistake: ignoring the real principles.

What Pesutto missed altogether was that Ms Deeming had given him a good issue with which he could have started the movement to restore the Liberal party’s standing. When the essential facts had come to light they became the foundation for showing that there are real economic, political and social freedoms that people value, and that one of them is the right to attend a public meeting and speak for what you believe in, without being unjustly smeared.

It was because the feeling developed in the community that Ms Deeming was being denied those rights that a groundswell developed that she should not be expelled. A corollary of that right is not to be branded as a Nazi or any other low form of life if they gate-crash the rally and you neither know or approve of their being there. Another corollary is that if allegations of this sort are made, you should be given a fair trial to disprove them. But Ms Deeming was denied that right as well.

Pesutto’s fifth mistake: compromising and showing weakness.

Having got himself into the situation where he was trying to expel a parliamentary member for no valid reason, applying wrong principles and dragging his own party into an unnecessary crisis, the last option open to Pesutto was to stick to his guns and carry it through. But no. He could not even do that successfully. After a party meeting of tears (the standard way of resolving political disputes these days) he adopted the weakest of all compromises, a nine-month suspension of Ms Deeming’s membership and who knows what sort of review, to see if she is good enough to be allowed back into Pesutto’s comfort zone.

Pesutto thus emerges as an appalling tactitian, someone who does not know one end of a principle from the other and, worst of all, a compromiser and wimp.

Sorry, but until the Liberal party returns to its basic principles, it is destined to follow the Flying Dutchman and never come into port, because it does not know where it is going.