Tony Abbott has strongly backed embattled Liberal candidate Katherine Deves in his former seat of Warringah.Credit:Composite
Most Liberals regard Warringah as unwinnable at this election,but some moderates are concerned Deves’ views will damage Liberal campaigns in seats such as Wentworth,North Sydney,Goldstein and Kooyong,where Liberal MPs are being challenged by independents.
However,one moderate party figure said on Friday the Warringah constituents he had spoken to mostly agreed with Deves that trans women should not be able to participate in women’s sport.
Mr Abbott,the former member for Warringah who lost to independent Zali Steggall at the last election,told theHerald the Liberal Party should “of course” stick with Deves.
“She’s a tough,brave person who’s standing up for the rights of women and girls,for fairness in sport,” he said. “I very much admire her and can’t understand the pile on from people who claim to be supporters of women’s rights.”
Deves was a so-called “captain’s pick”,installed by a committee comprised of Prime Minister Scott Morrison,NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and former party president Chris McDiven after the NSW division failed to preselect candidates through the usual process. A spokesman for the Prime Minister and a NSW Liberal Party spokesman both declined to comment on the procedure for vetting Deves.
Steggall has called for Deves to be disendorsed,saying her continued candidacy reflected poorly on Morrison. “He made an appalling captain’s call and now should correct it by demonstrating some integrity and sacking her as a candidate,” Steggall said earlier in the week.
Deves runs a lobby group,Save Women’s Sport,which is opposed to the inclusion of trans women in women’s sport. She deleted her Twitter account but old tweets resurfaced in which she called trans children “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and said she was triggered by the rainbow flag.