Victorian Liberal MPs Moira Deeming and Ann-Marie Hermans have been criticised for comparing Daniel Andrews to a dictator amid a manhunt for a so-called “sovereign citizen” who allegedly killed two police officers, with Deeming also accusing the former premier of using police as his “personal army” during Covid lockdowns.
Deeming on Wednesday night debated in parliament a petition she had sponsored opposing erecting a statue of Andrews. Passing the milestone of 3,000 days as premier made him eligible for one, but the Allan government has maintained it has no immediate plans to act on it.
The Liberal MP said “authoritarian regimes” put up statues while their leaders were still alive as a “tool of political dominance, of intimidation, like with Lenin or Mao or Hussein”.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
“We should be erring on the side of the tradition that honours leaders who did not lead their people into mass starvation and violence – but hey, that’s just me,” Deeming said.
She said under Andrews’ leadership during pandemic lockdowns, police were “used as a personal army with weapons of war and no name tags”, and that “Nuremberg trial principles” were “totally ignored”.
Deeming also referenced a 2013 car crash involving Andrews and his wife when he was opposition leader. The family of the teenage cyclist involved are preparing to bring a private criminal prosecution against Andrews.
She told Guardian Australia the debate slot was planned weeks before the deaths in Porepunkah, with her speech also referring to the expense of a statue amid a cost-of-living crisis.
“Linking those poor police who were killed in the line of duty to a petition presented in parliament about a statue is absolutely disgusting,” Deeming said.
Hermans spoke in support of the petition, telling the chamber: “The erosion of democratic principles in this state under the leadership of the former premier, Mr Daniel Andrews, cannot go without comparisons to Joseph Stalin”.
Just half of the Coalition’s 14 upper house MPs voted on the motion to formally take note of the petition. It was comprehensively defeated.
The opposition leader, Brad Battin, held a party room meeting on Thursday to express his disappointment and anger about the duo’s comments.
“I have sent a very clear message: I’m disappointed in the comments. I’m angry about what has happened, and I will be ensuring that each and every one of them must have a focus, and that focus is on Victorians,” Battin reportedly said.
Sources at the meeting, which also included Nationals MPs, said Battin “blew up” and told MPs they should “become independents if they want to go off message”.
Speaking outside parliament on Thursday, Hermans said her words “could have been wiser in reflection”.
“I don’t take back the autocratic side of it, it’s a fair description of Daniel Andrews’ leadership. Perhaps words could have been chosen better in terms of Stalin, because obviously we haven’t had the sort of genocide and I wouldn’t want that,” Hermans said. “But at the end of the day we are fighting a Marxist ideology.”
The police minister, Anthony Carbines, told ABC Radio Melbourne the commentary was “deeply offensive to police”.
He noted at the same time as Deeming and Hermans were speaking in the chamber, he was at a press conference with the premier and deputy premier after the death of a girl in a school bus crash and the naming of the officers killed in the Porepunkah shooting.
“It’s extraordinary that that behaviour is allowed. The focus of the parliament needs to be on Victorians and the hurt they’re feeling in a number of different tragedies that we’re dealing with this week … They should have really a damn good think about how they’re behaving,” Carbines said.
Dezi Freeman, the man suspected of shooting and killing Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson, 59, and Sen Const Vadim de Waart, 35 and injuring a third officer, has a history of association with pseudolaw and “sovereign citizen” ideas.
According to court records, he called police “terrorist thugs”, “frigging Nazis” and “Gestapo” that wore “the satanic symbol” of an “inverted pentagram” on their uniforms.
In 2021, Freeman was arrested while at a protest outside Myrtleford court, over 2019 allegations of sexual-related offending, according to a Border Mail article.
The protest was in response to a private prosecution brought against the then Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, accusing him of treason during Covid. But it was struck out by the magistrate because charge information had not been provided to Andrews.
