As guests gathered for Victoria’s annual multicultural gala, John Pesutto sat in the green room of the convention centre, his phone buzzing incessantly with text messages as he waited for the premier, Daniel Andrews, to arrive.
Earlier that day – 18 March 2023 – a newly elected Liberal MP, Moira Deeming, had attended a Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, who performed a Sieg Heil salute on the steps of parliament.
As the state’s opposition leader waited and his phone buzzed, he received another text, from former Liberal 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.”
What unfolded over the next 72 hours has not only divided Pesutto’s party but also put his leadership in jeopardy and embroiled him in a costly defamation lawsuit, in which a who’s who of Liberal figures – from the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, to former premier Jeff Kennett and Sky News host Peta Credlin – have had their political dealings laid bare.
Ultimately, the federal court case centres on whether Pesutto defamed Deeming as a Nazi sympathiser in a series of statements he made after the rally. Pesutto has denied the allegations.
But the last three weeks in court have been a postmortem of Deeming’s expulsion, with text messages, emails and private conversations exposed and the inner workings of Liberal party examined in forensic detail.
‘Nazis this time. What’s next?’
Fifteen minutes after his message to Staley on 18 March 2023, Pesutto texted his deputy, David Southwick: “I think we might need to discuss Moira. Do we really think her misjudgment, and worse, won’t keep hurting us? Nazis this time. What’s next?”
Southwick replied, “Yep it’s not great”, before meeting Pesutto in the green room.
At dinner, Pesutto and Southwick received a text from former Victorian Liberal leader Matthew Guy: “Just letting you know that if you want an expulsion moved in [sic] Deeming, and no one else will do it, I will”.
Southwick replied: “Ironically we are at the multicultural dinner and she is not making it easy for us.”
Guy responded: “You have this solution in your back pocket if you want it.”
At 9.30pm, Andrews took to the stage to condemn the presence of neo-Nazis at the rally.
Pesutto, in his affidavit, said it became clear to him that the rally – and Deeming’s involvement – would become a “huge political issue” for his party, set to be exploited by Andrews and the Labor party.
The next evening, he would inform Deeming he would be moving to expel her from the party room.
‘My biggest fans are gay people and trans people’
According to Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, Pesutto “had it in for” the MP because she was a conservative woman whose advocacy on “sex-based rights” was at odds with the political message he wanted to pursue.
Chrysanthou characterised her client as a suburban mother-of-four, a first-time MP who didn’t know how to respond to the arrival of the neo-Nazis and was “piled on” by the Liberal leadership team – comprised Pesutto, Southwick and upper house MPs Georgie Crozier and Matt Bach – a day later.
On the stand, Deeming maintained the men who disrupted the rally were not invited and had no affiliation with the event she helped organise, despite the claim by a neo-Nazi leader that the group acted as a “vanguard” for attenders.
Pesutto’s lawyer, Matthew Collins KC, argued that Deeming’s reputation was damaged before the rally by her own actions.
Pesutto, Southwick, Crozier and Bach all gave evidence this week, in which they argued they acted to protect the party from political attacks.
In a secret recording Southwick made of the 19 March meeting played in court, the group told Deeming they would seek her expulsion unless she resigned.
In the recording, Pesutto told Deeming becoming an independent was an option if she wanted “complete freedom” to express her views.
In court, it was clear Bach had least to lose, having quit politics in late 2022 and returned to his former profession of teaching.
He quipped he was “never that surprised to learn that meetings of the Liberal party may have been taped”, and denied the group ganged up on Deeming, instead insisting they had used “kid gloves”.
“I had more robust conversations with 11-year-olds most weeks than this,” he told the court.
On Thursday, another secret recording was played in court of a meeting between Crozier, Deeming and Pesutto a month before the rally.
Recorded by Deeming, the tape revealed Crozier and Pesutto expressing concern her actions were undermining the party’s ability to prosecute the government.
“I can get you a row of lesbians to stand behind you and back you up at a press conference,” Deeming told Pesutto, as she denied she held “homophobic or transphobic views” or was “anti-abortion”.
“My biggest fans are gay people and trans people,” she said.
Earlier in the defamation trial, Southwick told the court that Pesutto’s plan to win the 2026 state election hinged on avoiding distractions from issues that don’t resonate with everyday Victorians and “not for us to become the issue”.
He admitted the party had become embroiled in too many scandals. Throughout her cross-examinations, Chrysanthou referenced several, including Guy’s “lobster with a mobster” dinner, Pesutto’s 2018 comments on alleged African gang crime and the expulsion of Bernie Finn.
The saga continues
Deeming has several high-profile supporters, including Tony Abbott’s former chief of staff turned Sky News journalist, Peta Credlin, who the court heard helped Pesutto set up his office when he became opposition leader after the 2022 state election.
Deeming told the court Credlin became a “mentor” to her throughout the ordeal, helping her draft statements and offering to conduct a sympathetic interview, in which “some things were off limits”.
She also received support from Warren Mundine, federal senators Sarah Henderson and Jacinta Nampajinpa Price, as well as several state Liberal MPs including Renee Heath, Richard Riordan and Kim Wells, who testified in court.
The defamation trial also revealed an intervention by Peter Dutton, who expressed concern over the potential fallout from the saga in the lead up to last year’s Aston byelection.
“John for the sake of Aston, could you please put this issue to bed today. No more media please,” Dutton texted Pesutto, the court heard.
The party went on to lose the blue-ribbon seat to Labor.
Meanwhile, Pesutto was supported by Jeff Kennett, and admitted under cross examination he leaked information to the former premier that ended up in media reports.
Liberal party power broker Michael Kroger was also involved, pushing Pesutto to build a stronger case to expel Deeming, the court heard.
While the trial was meant to wrap up this week, closing submissions won’t begin until at least 22 October, meaning a judgment may not be handed down until 2025.
Until then, speculation over the future of the state Liberal leader, and the question of whether the party will ever welcome Deeming back into the fold, is unlikely to abate.
