James Campbell: Latest round goes to Pesutto after stoush with Sydney barrister

Day seven of Moira Deeming versus John Pesuttosaw the highly anticipated stoush between renowned Sydney legal bruiser Sue Chrysanthou and the Victorian Opposition Leader.

Day seven of Moira Deeming versus John Pesutto arrived and with it the stoush the political world has been anticipating for months: Sue Chrysanthou, SC, renowned Sydney legal bruiser trading blows with the Victorian Opposition Leader.

Before that could get underway however Pesutto’s counsel Matt Collins, KC, spent the morning taking the court through the chronology of the social and mainstream media storm that blew up during and after last March’s Let Women Speak rally.

To that end Justice David O’Callaghan was taken to tweets, articles and TV reports about the rally with the aim of showing that by the time the backbencher was summoned to her meeting with the Liberal leadership group on the Sunday after rally, the party was in a full-blown reputational crisis.

What the judge will make of this evidence is anyone’s guess because alongside news reports from Channel 9, His Honour was also taken to tweets by the anarcho-communist blogger Andy Fleming, who it is fair to say is not the a source of authority any of us had ever expected to see cited by a King’s Counsel acting on behalf of the leader of the Liberal Party.

Moira Deeming leaves court with her barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC. Picture: Aaron Francis

And that wasn’t even the weirdest thing.

At one point Collins took His Honour to a tweet from one Rob Baillieu attacking Deeming’s presence at the rally.

And why was that weird?

Because not only is Baillieu the son of former premier Ted Baillieu, who held Pesutto’s Hawthorn before he won it in 2014, he was one of the leaders of the failed attempt by the Teals to stop Pesutto winning it back in 2022.

Yet here we were watching Pesutto’s counsel citing evidence from Pesutto’s local political enemy Rob, in support of his defence in a defamation action that is being partly paid for by Rob’s dad Ted.

That took up the morning and it wasn’t until after lunch that the main event got underway.

Chrysanthou began slowly, taking Pesutto through a bunch of material to establish when he had first become aware of it and aside from her dig that his dossier of evidence against Deeming “was no better than a project prepared by an eight year old” it was pretty tame stuff.

John Pesutto leaves court with his wife Betty. Picture: Aaron Francis

It wasn’t until she started quizzing him about the secret recording of Deeming’s meeting with Liberal leadership that things suddenly got interesting.

Under questioning, Pesutto testified that he had no idea his deputy David Southwick had been recording that meeting and the first he had learned of the existence was at some point last summer when Southwick mentioned it, almost in passing.

Why had he not asked for a copy of it? Why hadn’t he told the court of its existence?

His responses were “I didn’t want it in my possession” and it “wasn’t my material to disclose”.

As for the custom of taping such meetings, well it was “just not my practice”.

Had he been shocked to learn Southwick had recorded this conversation?

“No, I wasn’t shocked by it.”

Make of that answer what you will.

Mr Pesutto said he didn’t know David Southwick was recording the meeting. Picture: David Crosling

After that Chrysanthou moved onto questions about the Liberal Party constitution, ground it was clear the Liberal leader was happy to cover.

Indeed as the afternoon wore on he seemed to grow more confident.

Indeed by the time she started suggesting he himself had caused by reputational damage to the Liberal Party by talking about the over-representation of Africans in the youth crime statistics, he seemed to be enjoying himself as much as a man can who is being grilled in defamation action being brought by a Liberal Party member.

Because whether or not his comments about the African gangs crisis of a few years back ends up being a problem for him legally, there’s no doubt at all it’s not going to do him any damage with the Liberal Party’s members in whose hands his political fate ultimately rests.

IF this was a boxing match, so far you’d say Round One – on the Deeming dossier – was a draw, Round Two – the secret recording – went to Chrysanthou and Round Three – the African Gangs – was clearly won by the Opposition Leader.

The match, sorry trial, continues on Wednesday.

Originally published as James Campbell: Latest round goes to Pesutto after stoush with Sydney barrister