Sky News host Peta Credlin warned against expelling Moira Deeming from the Victorian Liberal party room in a text message to John Pesutto’s chief of staff, whose office she was then helping to set up, a court has heard.
Deeming, now an independent MP after her expulsion, is suing the Victorian opposition leader for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally held on 18 March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Pesutto has rejected the allegation.
Appearing before the defamation trial on Friday, Pesutto’s former chief of staff, Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez, was read a text message he received from Credlin the evening after the rally.
In it, Credlin warned Pintos-Lopez against linking Deeming and other rally organisers to the neo-Nazis.
“The two groups should not be conflated unless you have clear evidence to the contrary,” she wrote, the federal court heard.
“The right of women to women’s spaces should not be controversial, and it is something a growing number of women are speaking out about. It would be wrong if this issue gets lost in the rush to rightly go after appalling Nazi sentiment.
“You must distinguish the two or you risk giving Liberal supporters of women’s spaces the perception that you do not support them. I will also finish my comment on your doc and will send back.”
Pintos-Lopez told the court he could not recall if he passed Credlin’s advice on to Pesutto.
He said he had met Credlin when she was chief of staff to then prime minister Tony Abbott, and had reached out to her in early 2023 as he began setting up the opposition leader’s office following the 2022 election.
“We had a coffee in East Melbourne, I regarded her as having run a very successful opposition office, I knew her through contacts,” Pintos-Lopez told court.
“I asked her to help out, give me advice on how I should set up the office and how I should run a successful opposition and she was very kind.”
The duo worked on a document together on their plans for Pesutto’s office, which was referred to in Credlin’s text message.
Under cross-examination by Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, Pintos-Lopez said he was aware the federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, was among senior Liberals to have also expressed concern about the expulsion motion.
“There were certainly people who vehemently objected to the course of conduct that Mr Pesutto and the team had engaged in,” he said.
Earlier in the trial, the court heard Credlin became a “mentor” figure to Deeming and provided her with advice on how to deal with members of the party room and the media. Documents published by the court on Monday included Credlin’s edits to a letter drafted by Deeming, which was then sent on to Liberal MPs.
Matthew Collins KC, for Pesutto, argued that Deeming’s reputation was damaged before the rally by her own actions.
Pesutto has repeatedly asserted he had to act to protect the party from the damage when he sought to expel Deeming.
The trial continues.
