Liberal MPs who are backing Moira Deeming say her expulsion from the parliamentary party room could come back to bite leader John Pesutto because it sets an unrealistically high threshold for the future.

The upper house MP faces being dumped from Coalition ranks on Monday for “organising, promoting and attending” the Let Women Speak rally last weekend that was gatecrashed by far-right extremists performing Nazi salutes on the steps of Parliament House.

Pesutto is confident his move to expel Deeming will receive majority support, and argues in his motion he needs to take decisive action against the first-term MP because she refused to distance herself from British anti-trans activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, who “was known to be publicly associated with far right-wing extremist groups including neo-Nazi activists”.

Deeming supporters in the party room said the case opened a “can of worms” and the bar to throw her out was set too low so soon after her election.

Meanwhile, the Australian Christian Lobby on Friday sent out mass text messages to its supporters, urging them to write to their Liberal MPs before Monday “to keep Moira Deeming! Act now”.

But another MP said Deeming had “doggedly refused to put a sliver of light between herself” and Keen-Minshull – whose social media profile photo was a Barbie wearing a swastika armband – as well as Melbourne anti-trans activist Angela Jones, who on the day of the rally tweeted: “Nazis and women want to get rid of paedo filth, why don’t you?”

Opposition Leader John Pesutto with his leadership team, from left: David Southwick, Georgie Crozier and Matt Bach.Credit:Simon Schluter

“Everyone knows that John sat down with [Deeming] after her maiden speech and made clear where the lines were,” said the MP, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal party matters.

“If people are asking, ‘Am I in trouble because I once unwittingly shared a post?’, that’s overthinking it. We have a member … who is even refusing to say [Jones and Keen-Minshull] have done some wrong things. That’s not normal, that’s crazy town, far-right fringe dwelling.”

The MP said it was difficult to comprehend why it would be excusable for Deeming to refuse to acknowledge that Jones and Keen-Minshull had posted comments and photos on social media that were “demonstrably hateful”.

A dirt list of Liberal MPs who have shared platforms with controversial figures was circulated this week in a bid to undermine the case against Deeming. The MP who backs the expulsion motion said the comparison was false equivalence.

Moira Deeming speaking at the Let Women Speak rally at Parliament House last Saturday.Credit:Youtube

The saga threatens to destabilise the Coalition and the leadership of Pesutto, who had managed to keep his team united since last year’s election defeat. It has also spilled into the federal arena, as Victorian senator Sarah Henderson has reportedly lobbied Pesutto to not expel Deeming.

Henderson burst into tears in the Senate on Friday claiming a Labor minister “said the most disgraceful thing” during a debate on Nazi symbols.

Another state MP, who will not support the expulsion motion and believed a compromise should have been negotiated, said the dirt list made the leadership team look hypocritical.

“It’s confusing when you see other things rock up like that. People in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones.”

The MP, who asked not to be named to speak frankly about internal matters, said Pesutto’s decisiveness could come back to bite him.

“This is somebody’s career … Alright, fair enough, there might have been some concerns at preselection … [but] the party rank and file obviously supported her and voted for her. She’s only been there a couple of months and a vast number of people knew what her stance on [trans] issues were.”

Another Liberal MP said politicians – and other people in public life – regularly posed for photographs with people who may have controversial views.

They said the Liberal Party, which champions itself as a broad church, should not be lowering the bar on how it judges people.

“People need to be judged on their physical and verbal actions, and not photos they’ve taken with others,” the MP said. “That opens a can of worms, not just for politicians, but anyone in the public eye.”

Peter Killin, who quit in 2019 as the party’s candidate for the federal seat of Wills when his homophobic comments were revealed, sent an email to Liberal MPs on Wednesday chastising Pesutto for singling out Deeming for expulsion, the Herald Sun reported.

The email, which Killin denied writing, cited the examples of deputy Liberal leader David Southwick posing for photos more than seven years ago with controversial far-right commentator Avi Yemini; Brad Rowswell inviting controversial tennis giant Margaret Court to a 2017 fundraiser; and Jess Wilson, whose husband Aaron Lane was forced to resign as a Liberal Party candidate in 2014 over a series of homophobic social media comments. At the time, Lane said he was not homophobic and apologised for the comments, which he said were made over two years earlier.

Matt Bach, the deputy leader of the opposition in the upper house, on Thursday described the comparisons as a “sideshow”.

“The reasons for the action that we’ve taken have been thoroughly set out in the motion,” Bach said.

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