MP at war with the Liberal party appeara in the audience of Q+A

Ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming has made a surprise appearance in the audience of Monday night’s ABC panel program Q+A.

Ms Deeming, who is suing Victorian state leader John Pesutto for defamation after she was ejected from the Liberal partyroom, was called on as the panel discussed women in politics.

The expelled Liberal MP has alleged in court Mr Pesutto falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser in the aftermath of a March 2023 Let Women Speak event in Melbourne that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

Ms Deeming was suspended from the Liberal party­room in March last year, before being expelled in May.

A judgment in the case is expected in early ­December.

Ms Deeming was called on during discussion over a question on women in politics, particularly in the Liberal Party.

“We have to bring Moira in,” host Patricia Karevelas said.

“You are a member of the parliament in Victoria. You’ve been an ongoing legal battle with your leader.

“In terms of the Liberal Party, do you think it is a he welcoming place?”

Ms Deeming replied: “There are lots of people inside who have been fantastic.”

“Look, all political parties have this kind of thing going on. It is about power,” she said.

“I think gender is an excuse. I think there are a lot of excuses made for people to hold on to power.

“I don’t think there is always narcism going on, but I have seen some.”

Meanwhile, British journalist and filmmaker Jon Ronson spoke on the personalities attracted to politics.

He said about 2 per cent of the general public were a psychopath, but that number doubled when it came to business and political leaders.

“Why is that? It is partly if you have no love and kindness in your brain, all the desire that’s left is the desire to win,” he said.

“We have collectively decided as a society to reward people who have the worst mental disorders possible, the ones where there’s no empathy, where there’s grandiosity, where people are impulsive and irresponsible and superficially charming.

“Those are the people we’re constantly pushing to the top of the tree.”

Centre for Public Christianity senior fellow Tim Costello argued that politicians not only put themselves out there but needed ego strength to cope with the acceptance and rejection that came with the job.

He believed politics was a very high calling and the extraordinary good politicians could do was important for the health of the nation.

“I don’t think we should be running politicians down,” he said.

“I think what’s got worse is we’ve almost got Masters of the Universe with absolutely no self doubt.

“The extraordinary explosion of being able to turn my grievances into your grievances, and I feel I’m your retribution, I think that level of narcissism is pretty scary.”

Quillette editor in chief Claire Lehmann said we spent so much time talking about how awful politicians were, but then said we needed more good people to get into politics.

“I think that that is counter-productive,” she said.

“I do think that there are narcissists in politics, but there are also narcissists at the top of every other industry and with social media we’re becoming more narcissistic as a society.

“We’re so focused on ourselves, and even you know the use of words like personal brand, like, what does that even mean? And why are we even supportive of that?”

Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel said there were all sorts of people in parliament, and since independents had entered it was a likely reflection that people wanted something different from politicians.