Rita Panahi: Jeff Kennett is dead wrong in trying to guilt the Liberals into paying John Pesutto’s debt

Jeff Kennett is wrong in trying to guilt the Liberal Party into covering John Pesutto’s $2.3m legal bill and should remember that the victim in this case is Moira Deeming, not the man who bullied and defamed her.

Jeff Kennett was the last great leader of the Victorian Liberals but my fellow Herald Sun columnist is dead wrong in trying to guilt the party into saving John Pesutto by covering his $2.3 million debt.

Just like he was dead wrong in telling the party to blindly back the leader even as Pesutto doubled down on a disastrous course of action in defaming three brave women, Kellie-Jay Keen, Angie Jones and first term Liberal MP Moira Deeming.

Everything that is happening to Pesutto is entirely self-inflicted. FAFO, as the kids say; he f***ed around and found out.

And, finding out in this instance may see the former Liberal leader declared bankrupt and forced to resign from his seat, triggering a by-election in the marginal seat of Hawthorn. Pesutto had many opportunities to swallow his pride, acknowledge his many egregious mistakes and apologise but he refused time and time again.

Jeff Kennett is wrong in trying to guilt the Liberal Party to cover John Pesutto’s debt. Photo: The Australian

No one forced Pesutto, a lawyer who operated his own legal practice, to defame a mother of four just hours after she’d been attacked by trans activists seeking to shut down a women’s rights rally.

No one forced Pesutto to circulate a dossier full of lies and hyperbole about women whose only crime was to take a stand for the rights of girls and women in this state.

No one forced him to target Deeming with a campaign of victim-blaming and intimidation.

And, no one forced Pesutto to embarrass himself with four days of testimony that one legal eagle described as “excruciating”. Judge David O’Callaghan’s 195-page judgement was damning; Pesutto had made defamatory imputations in five publications which had caused, or were likely to cause “serious harm to her (Deeming’s) reputation”.

Now, Pesutto and his backers want Deeming to show him the mercy he never granted her.

Everything that is happening to Pesutto is entirely self-inflicted. Picture: Ian Currie

What happened after the Let Women Speak event in March, 2023 was a textbook case of victim-blaming where women’s rights campaigners including Deeming were vilified for the actions of anti-women agitators and a small group of cos-playing neo-Nazi who gatecrashed the event.

As I wrote in March 2023 Pesutto behaved in a “deeply dishonourable manner” in attacking Deeming.

“Instead of calling out the premier’s cynical tactics of blaming women for the actions of around 20 Nazi morons, or condemning the far Left activists engaging in violence that saw several women injured, Pesutto opted to be Dan’s and the media’s useful idiot.”

If only Pesutto had listened and reversed course back then. As for Kennett, he should remember that the victim in this case is Deeming, not the man who bullied and defamed her.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist

Originally published as Rita Panahi: Jeff Kennett is dead wrong in trying to guilt the Liberals into paying John Pesutto’s debt