Moira Deeming has conceded that "distractions" have taken away from the Liberal Party's efforts to represent Victorians, after the MP went to the Supreme Court in a bid to retain her candidacy for the November state election.
The Liberal Party state executive was due to meet last Friday to vote on revoking the MP's preselection, after she refused to apologise to former Opposition Leader Matthew Guy when Victoria Police dismissed her claim he put her in a headlock.
But Mrs Deeming took her own party to the Supreme Court and won a two-week reprieve.
A one-day trial later this month will hear her allegations that the party's plans to remove her denied her procedural fairness, though she was invited to address the party executive.
In a video posted to her social media pages this afternoon, Mrs Deeming thanked supporters for sticking by her.
"I hope you know you can still trust me," she said.
"I think it's time that I address the fact that there have been so many distractions, so many huge distractions that have taken away from the work that you as my constituents and Victorians really needed to be done.
"I am genuinely so, so sorry that all of these things over the past three and a half years have happened."
Supreme Court battle with state executive still to come
Earlier this term, she successfully sued then-leader John Pesutto for defamation.
Mrs Deeming said the Supreme Court dispute over her preselection was being mediated behind the scenes. But Liberal sources rejected any suggestion it could be mediated and are determined to remove her as the candidate.
Documents released by the court today revealed that Mrs Deeming was seeking to have four members of the state executive, who are not factionally aligned to her, barred from ruling on her preselection because of what she called actual or perceived bias.
Mrs Deeming further argued she should have first been dealt with through an internal party disciplinary process.
Opposition Leader Jess Wilson backed Mr Guy's demands for an apology. He has left the door open to defamation action.
Victoria Police reviewed CCTV of the interaction between Mrs Deeming and Mr Guy on May 23 at a community function in Sunshine. It appeared to show Mr Guy place his hand on Mrs Deeming's shoulder during a conversation at the crowded Macedonian event.
In her video today, Mrs Deeming said it had been "an emotional, confusing and exhausting few years".
"The simple fact is that things go wrong in life and you have to just pick yourself up and keep going forward. That's what I intend to do," she said.
Over the weekend, Mrs Deeming contacted some of her party room colleagues to say she regretted taking the latest Supreme Court action.
In a statement released through her lawyer last week, she conceded she misunderstood the meaning of the word "headlock".
But she said she wouldn't apologise for making a false allegation because she made it in good faith.
View original source — ABC News ↗

