The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, is expected to face court during a two-week defamation trial in September, as a federal court judge raised concerns about the number of claims MP Moira Deeming has made against him.
At a court hearing in Melbourne on Friday, Justice Michael Wheelahan ordered a single 10-day trial be run from 16 September.
Deeming, who was expelled from the Liberal party room last year, is suing Pesutto over a series of media releases, press conferences and radio interviews he gave after she spoke at an anti-trans rights rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, who performed the Sieg Heil salute on the front steps of parliament last March.
Her lawyers, who also draw on a 15-page document his office circulated to Liberal MPs and the media when he moved to expel her from the party room, argue Pesutto made 67 imputations, including that Deeming “supports, sympathises with or associates with white supremacists and neo-Nazis”, and that she is a white supremacist or neo-Nazi.
In his defence, Pesutto has categorically denied this, arguing he “repeatedly and unequivocally acknowledged publicly that he does not believe Deeming to be a neo-Nazi, a white supremacist, or anything of similar substance or effect”.
But he has admitted to 16 imputations, including that Deeming associated with speakers at the event who had “known links with neo-Nazis and white supremacists” and that she is not a “fit and proper person to be a member of the Victorian parliamentary Liberal party” under his leadership.
Neither MP attended Friday’s hearing, during which Deeming’s lawyer, high-profile defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou, requested a separate trial be held to determine which of the imputations he believes were conveyed by Pesutto.
She said this would save both parties “a significant amount of time and costs”.
“This is two individuals against each other and who don’t have the same resources, one would expect in a media case,” Chrysanthou said.
Wheelahan replied: “Both parties appear well armed.”
He refused to hold a separate trial, and questioned the number of imputations Deeming’s lawyers argued could be made from Pesutto’s statements and interviews.
“I mean, how many ways are there of saying the same thing?” Wheelahan said.
He said he was “resistant to the idea” that 67 imputations would be “laundered through a separate trail”.
It was a view shared by Pesutto’s lawyer, barrister Matthew Collins, who said it would “add to costs and delay the ultimate hearing of the matter”.
“Given your honour’s indication that you can accommodate a trial as early as September this year, we think we’d be better of just focusing on getting the matter ready for a trial,” Collins said via video link from Paris.
Wheelahan said he was of the view Deeming’s lawyers should review the number of imputations before the case’s next mention on 26 April, and would reconsider their application for a separate trial at that time.
Pesutto’s lawyers will largely rely on the honest opinion defence, which allows people to express opinions on matters of public interest, as well as the defences of contextual truth and qualified privilege.
According to Pesutto’s defence, he moved to expel Deeming from the party room due to her failure to distance herself from the organisers of the Let Women Speak rally, who he alleges had associated with white supremacists.
The defence also alleged Deeming failed to recognise the seriousness of staying at the protest when neo-Nazis arrived, and of celebrating with organisers afterwards.
If this fails, and Pesutto is found to be liable, his lawyers will argue any damages will be mitigated by his repeated public denials that Deeming was a neo-Nazi.
They will also argue Deeming “repeatedly made or acceded to public statements falsely asserting that Pesutto has said that she is a Nazi or has Nazi associations or is a Nazi sympathiser”.
“[Deeming] has thereby acted in a manner that is likely to have caused damage to her own reputation by putting into the public domain false assertions that she has been branded a Nazi, a person with Nazi associations, or a Nazi sympathiser by the Victorian Leader of the opposition,” the defence reads.
Collins told the court the Let Women Speak rally was “hijacked” by neo-Nazis, which Chrysanthou rejected.
“We do not accept that the neo-Nazis were there for the rally that my client was involved in. In fact they were there for a completely different rally and were pushed towards the rally my client was involved in by police,” she said.
Wheelahan said this would be a matter for the trial.
