Thursday, 10 September 2026

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (09:52): I am pleased to finally announce that I have joined Family First and will recontest the 2026 election as their lead candidate for the upper house in Western Metro and as leader of the party for Victoria. I am running to win because I know the west. I have chosen to raise my family in the west, and the west needs a representative who is a true local and who will put their families first. That is what I have always done, and that is what I intend to keep doing. Other politicians and the media have tried to end my political career, but I am still here and I am still fighting. There is absolutely nothing and nobody that could make me abandon the fight for child safeguards. I care about the people in the west, and if I am elected, perhaps even if I hold the balance of power, I am going to make sure that the days of both major parties taking the west for granted are over. Family First and Lyle Shelton have been very, very kind and gracious to me over the years, and I am very excited to take this next step. I am very excited to join a party whose principles line up with their policies. Contesting as a minor party candidate is hard, and I know that, but I have been encouraged to recontest this election by people across every party and political cross-section of society and especially by the great people in Melbourne’s west who already know me and have continued to stand with me through thick and thin. I am running again because the work is not finished. I am going to fight for parental rights and child safeguards and get rid of corruption in this state.