diff --git a/maas/client/viscera/version.py b/maas/client/viscera/version.py
index a3fe4262..185a4b36 100644
--- a/maas/client/viscera/version.py
+++ b/maas/client/viscera/version.py
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
 
 __all__ = ["Version"]
 
-from distutils.version import StrictVersion
+from packaging.version import Version as PackagingVersion
 
 from . import Object, ObjectField, ObjectType
 
 
 def parse_version(version):
-    return StrictVersion(version).version
+    return PackagingVersion(version).release
 
 
 class VersionType(ObjectType):
diff --git a/scripts/check-imports b/scripts/check-imports
index daf072f1..c6cc3908 100755
--- a/scripts/check-imports
+++ b/scripts/check-imports
@@ -96,7 +96,6 @@ python_standard_libs = [
     'difflib',
     'dircache',
     'dis',
-    'distutils',
     'dl',
     'doctest',
     'DocXMLRPCServer',
@@ -203,6 +202,7 @@ python_standard_libs = [
     'optparse',
     'os',
     'ossaudiodev',
+    'packaging',
     'parser',
     'pathlib',
     'pdb',
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6a6ac1ab..935c30cf 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ def read(filename):
         "colorclass >= 1.2.0",
         "macaroonbakery >= 1.1.3",
         "oauthlib >= 1.0.3",
+        "packaging >= 21.3",
         "pymongo >= 3.5.1",  # for bson
         "pytz >= 2014.10",
         "PyYAML >= 3.11",