‘I’m a fighter’: John Pesutto declares he’ll stay as leader after damning defamation judgment

Opposition Leader John Pesutto has vowed to stay on in the top job after a damning court judgment found he defamed ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming.

Pesutto was ordered in the Federal Court to pay Deeming $300,000 for damage to her reputation, in a judgment that found he had defamed her on five occasions.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto speaks to the media at Parliament House after the judgment.Credit: Eddie Jim

Deeming alleged she had been “tarred with the Nazi brush” as part of Pesutto’s “campaign” to expel her from the parliamentary Liberal Party, her barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, had told the court.

Deeming, who now sits on the crossbench of the Victorian parliament, had helped organise the Let Women Speak rally on March 18, 2023.

Neo-Nazis were among several groups of protesters that arrived at the steps of parliament that day. She told the court that she had condemned the men, said they were not there to support her cause, and that she did not see them until they were escorted away by police.

Pesutto moved to expel Deeming from the parliamentary party in the following days. She was instead suspended in a last-minute compromise, but was ultimately expelled weeks later, after threatening to bring in lawyers.

Handing down his decision on Thursday after hearing more than three weeks of evidence that damaged the party room, Justice David O’Callaghan agreed Pesutto had defamed Deeming.

Rumblings to overthrow Pesutto in October did not amount to anything, but many in the party room had privately accepted that a loss for Pesutto would make his position as leader untenable.

O’Callaghan found Pesutto had defamed Deeming in a media release, one radio and one TV interview, at a press conference and in an expulsion motion and dossier.

O’Callaghan said that while Pesutto had defended the case on the grounds of public interest, honest opinion and qualified privilege, all those failed and the defence of contextual truth did not arise.

John Pesutto and Moira Deeming outside the Federal Court during the defamation trial.Credit: The Age

He said Pesutto failed to take care with his language in interviews and a press conference while “bandying around” words.

“Whether he intended to convey the imputations that I have found were carried or not, the risk of those serious meanings being conveyed about Mrs Deeming necessitated that he take care to ensure that the factual matters upon which he sought to base his explanation as to why he proposed to move for Mrs Deeming’s expulsion had proper or sufficient foundation,” O’Callaghan said.

Pesutto was also criticised for evidence he gave that Deeming already had a bad reputation, with the judge branding it untrue and saying the opposition leader had been unable to provide a “skerrick of evidence to support it”.

“That is a shameful state of affairs, because the allegation – which went as far as saying that he ‘[knew] of no other person with such a bad reputation who has been allowed into the party’ – was self-evidently calculated to defeat Mrs Deeming’s case that she had, or was likely to have, suffered serious harm as a consequence of the impugned publications,” O’Callaghan said.

“The allegation that Mr Pesutto made that Mrs Deeming had a bad reputation also flies in the face of objective facts.”

Pesutto said at a press conference that the decision was personally disappointing but the court had made no adverse findings about his credit.

“We need better leadership in Victoria. That’s why I have this job. That’s why I intend to continue in this role,” he said.

“I’ve always been a fighter, and I’ve always been a fighter for the right reasons and the right people, the Victorian people, and that is why I will continue in this role.”

Pesutto would not comment on whether he should apologise to Deeming and said it was up to the party room as to whether she could now rejoin the party.

He repeatedly sought to emphasise the Liberal Party’s recent poll success in Victoria and the problems facing the state.

Pesutto would also not be drawn on whether he could afford the $300,000 damages payment and associated court costs, which are likely to push the figures into the millions.

After the court decision, Deeming said she had only ever sought to stand up for what she believed in.

“Not one Liberal Party value was honoured or furthered in Victoria by this relentless and remorseless campaign to discredit me and all those who stood by me,” she said.

“This should not have come to this, I should not have had to go to court. This could have all been avoided.

“I never did anything wrong. I always acted in good faith.”

Deeming said it was “cathartic” to read the judgment, but she stopped short of calling for Pesutto to resign.

“I don’t think that he has proven himself trustworthy, so it’s not up to me to make that kind of call.”

Deputy Premier Ben Carroll called on Pesutto to resign immediately.

“John Pesutto’s position as leader of the opposition, and indeed as alternative premier, is completely in shreds today, and his position is untenable,” Carroll said at a press conference.

“He needs to resign and do the right thing by all Victorians.

“Resign today as leader of the opposition … give an apology to Moira Deeming, and give an apology to all Victorians that he said all along that he didn’t have a case to answer for.

“He has no scrap of any integrity today.”

Former shadow attorney-general Tim Smith also took to X to ask Pesutto to step down.

“As a long-time member of the Liberal Party I’m calling on @JohnPesutto to resign immediately,” he said.

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