A high-stakes defamation battle between Victoria’s opposition leader, John Pesutto, and ex-Liberal MP Moira Deeming begins in the federal court on Monday.
Several senior Liberal MPs will undergo public cross-examination in a trial that threatens to expose disunity within the party.
Deeming is suing Pesutto over allegations he falsely portrayed her a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at a rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
More than 18 months after Deeming spoke at the controversial rally, the three-week long defamation trial is getting under way.
Here’s everything you need to know about the trial and the events that led to it.
How did we get here?
First-term Liberal MP Moira Deeming was one of a series of speakers at a rally held on the steps of Victoria’s parliament in March 2023.
The event was co-organised by the UK gender-critical activist Kellie-Jay Keen. It was part of Keen’s “Let Women Speak” tour of Australia and New Zealand last year, which held rallies in several cities, claiming that the push for transgender rights was silencing, and discriminating against, women.
The Victorian rally was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, who performed the Sieg Heil salute on the front steps of parliament.
After the rally, Pesutto moved to expel Deeming from the parliamentary party and made a series of comments in press releases and interviews about this.
In a 3AW interview in March 2023, he claimed Deeming had “associations” with protester organisers who had “known links with Nazis”, according to court documents.
Deeming initially survived a motion to expel her from the party room and was suspended for nine months. In May last year, she was expelled in a separate motion after she threatened to bring in lawyers to resolve the dispute. She was exiled to serve the remainder of her term on the crossbench of the upper house, but is still a member of the broader Liberal party.
What are the allegations?
Deeming is suing Pesutto over a series of documents, press conferences and interviews he gave after she spoke at the rally.
After her ousting, Deeming vowed to take legal action against Pesutto. In December, she formally lodged defamation proceedings against him in the federal court.
In court documents, Deeming’s lawyers have drawn on a 15-page document that Pesutto’s office had circulated to Liberal MPs and the media when he moved to expel Deeming from the party room, and argued his comments conveyed a number of imputations, including that the MP supports and sympathises with white supremacists and neo-Nazis and that she is a white supremacist or neo-Nazi.
In his defence, Pesutto categorically denies 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”.
He has admitted to conveying some 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.
In court documents, Pesutto said he would rely on the defences of honest opinion, contextual truth, public interest and qualified privilege.
Who is Moira Deeming?
The former teacher was preselected in July 2022 for the unloseable top spot on the Liberal ticket for the western metropolitan region. She replaced the controversial MP Bernie Finn, who had been expelled from the party room.
Deeming had been elected to Melton city council in 2020 after advocating for separate toilets for trans people. She had previously criticised Victoria’s Safe Schools program, which aims to prevent bullying against LGBTQ+ students.
Is there other legal action?
Pesutto faced two separate defamation claims from Keen, also known as Posie Parker, and Angela Jones, a Melbourne-based gender-critical activist who co-organised the rally.
Keen and Jones alleged Pesutto defamed the pair to justify his efforts to expel Deeming from the party room. They alleged Pesutto defamed them by suggesting they were associated with and supportive of far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis.
In May this year, Pesutto reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with each of them and issued a public apology via an online statement, saying it was never his intention to convey that he believed Keen or Jones to be neo-Nazis or members of neo-Nazi groups.
“As far as my comments may have been misunderstood as conveying that I believed this to be the case, I apologise for any hurt, distress or harm that has occurred,” he said.
Who will testify?
The party’s deputy leader, David Southwick, and the leader of the opposition in the upper house, Georgie Crozier, are among those expected to give evidnce.
The federal court last month ordered that the former Victorian Liberal MP Matt Bach must travel from his home in the UK to give evidence.
Bach was a member of the Liberal leadership team that met with Deeming after she participated in the rally.
What does it mean for the Liberal party?
The court case could pose a threat to the stability of the party and Pesutto’s leadership.
The case is expected to expose details of how senior Liberals worked to oust Deeming from the party in the aftermath of the rally.
This could have ramifications for Pesutto’s standing within the party, although some polling suggests he is close to becoming the state’s preferred premier.
