Any faint possibility that the Victorian Liberal Party might reorganise itself into an effective opposition party, let alone one fit to govern, was swatted from the air by the Nazi salutes performed outside Parliament on March 18, 2023. The neo-Nazis were uninvited but supportive attendees of the “Let Women Speak” rally organised by anti-trans-rights campaigners Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, Angela Jones and first-term Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
John Pesutto, who won the party leadership by a single vote after a second consecutive drubbing under Matthew Guy in 2022 — and who had pledged the Liberals under his leadership would look to “reach the broadest possible audience of Victorians” — moved to expel Deeming. After a decidedly messy compromise and lots of public and private wrangling, Deeming, now an independent MP, then took him Pesutto to court for defamation, alleging he falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser.
The case, which was expected to come to a conclusion today but may drag painfully on, has confirmed in granular detail what we already knew: far from stabilising, since the election the Liberals have been like one of those gel tubes we had as kids, constantly collapsing in on itself.
Text message break-ups
The discovery process in the trial has revealed the trail of correspondence around Deeming’s suspension and ultimate expulsion from the party.
There was early panic in the Victorian Liberal leadership: on the day of the rally, Pesutto was texted by his chief of staff, former MP Louise Staley: “Moira Deeming at rally with neo-Nazis today.”
Pesutto replied: “This only gets worse from here. I don’t even understand why she wants to be in the Liberal Party.”
Over the next week, Deeming was in regular contact with former Tony Abbott chief of staff and media figure Peta Credlin, who offered a “friendly” interview, along with support, advice and the following ringing endorsement: “We need you to survive this. You will lead the party one day”.
Check the tapes
It was revealed early in proceedings that deputy leader David Southwick had secretly recorded the March 19 meeting in which Deeming claims she was “ambushed” regarding the allegations that she was associating with Nazis:
John Pesutto: This is about Nazi links.
Moira Deeming: Are you accusing me of actual Nazi links?
John Pesutto: No, to the protest. To the protest … I can phrase it this way. Can you assure us that nobody you’ve worked with has any sympathies or, you know, liaisons with Nazi groups.
Moira Deeming: Absolutely none that I could possibly know about. You’re not going to find a single shred of evidence that I had … obviously I’m not a mind reader. Maybe there’s some secret Nazi somewhere, but absolutely no indication at all, anywhere.
This act of secret recording was not a one-off but part of a glorious tradition in the Victorian Liberals. Indeed, any outrage from Deeming’s camp may have been slightly tempered by the coming revelation that, a month before the rally, Deeming had also secretly recorded a meeting with leadership.
In February 2023, Pesutto and Upper House opposition leader Georgie Crozier had implied Deeming’s views on gender and sexuality could become a distraction for the party. Deeming memorably defended herself: “My biggest fans are gay people and trans people. I could get a row of lesbians to stand around you at a press conference and back you up.”
Getting in each others’ hair
Then there was the remarkable exchange between Crozier and Sue Chrysanthou SC, Deeming’s barrister, regarding texts from February 2023 where Deeming stated she would be late for a partyroom meeting because she couldn’t “shift an appointment”.
Crozier said she’d inferred Deeming had been referring to a medical appointment, but “when I inquired about where she was, she was getting her hair done, that was a little surprising for me”.
“I said to her you can’t not come to a partyroom meeting for a hair appointment,” Crozier said when Chrysanthou accused her of “scolding” Deeming for the appointment.
Gimme a minute(s)
Upper House candidate for Eastern Victoria, Renee Heath — herself the subject of controversy due to her links to a highly socially conservative church — was questioned over the leaking of partyroom meeting minutes to Deeming.
Heath was the minute-taker at the March 27 meeting in which Pesutto first moved to expel Deeming and which landed on the “compromise” of a nine-month suspension. She sent a draft of her notes from her personal email account to Deeming’s personal email the next day, at Deeming’s request. The minutes formed the basis of a piece by Credlin.
Heath said in court that she “didn’t recall” whether she had chosen to correspond with Deeming via personal emails to avoid being caught on the parliamentary system.
Asked by Pesutto’s barrister Matt Collins KC why she didn’t email the notes from her parliamentary email, Heath said, “I don’t recall”.
“Were you authorised to provide a copy of the notes to Ms Deeming?” Collins asked.
“I don’t recall,” Heath replied. “I believe I would have been directed by Mr Pesutto or somebody on his behalf not to provide those notes.”
Lies, lies, lies
Both sides of the debate have been accused of lying. Southwick, in defending his decision to record the March 19 meeting, said he attempting to “protect” himself from “what was about to happen”.
“I felt that from those events and following from the call, and later from the champagne video, and the trivialisation of what was the darkest day I have known in terms of hate on the steps of Parliament, to behave that way and to trivialise what was so offensive to me, I felt that I couldn’t trust Ms Deeming.”
Southwick told the court Deeming had “lied to me” in the phone call. Meanwhile, veteran Liberal Kim Wells accused Pesutto of lying by telling him Deeming had organised for the neo-Nazis support she had received at the rally.
