James Campbell: Underneath the legal dispute is a political dispute

A key meeting in Moira Deeming’s defamation case against John Pesutto was played to the court and it was ugly listening that reflected badly on everyone present.

Day two of Deeming versus Pesutto began with the ousted backbencher’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou SC taking the court through the secretly recorded meeting between her client and the Liberal leadership team.

It was ugly listening – a nasty pile on that reflected badly on everyone present.

Pesutto spoke mildly, trying to give the impression he had an open mind.

His deputy David Southwick – who was surreptitiously taping the meeting – played the bad cop.

A meeting between Moira Deeming and the Liberal leadership team was secretly recorded. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Sounding like a schoolteacher, the upper house leader Georgie Crozier contributed little aside from occasionally interjecting about how disappointed she was in Moira.

The actual schoolteacher Matt Bach made only one substantial contribution which was to effectively call Deeming a liar.

The irony of this charge coming from Bach will not have been lost on his colleagues and Spring St journalists who remember well his strenuous denials he was planning to resign to take a teaching job in England, denials which only ended when he resigned from parliament to take a teaching job in England.

Matt Bach made only one substantial contribution which was to effectively call Deeming a liar. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Deeming had been summoned to the meeting thinking it was to talk about the unwelcome presence of neo-Nazis at the Let Women Speak Rally the day earlier.

Instead she was presented with allegations that the rally’s organisers, particularly British activist Kellie-Jay Keen, were not, as she believed, simply trans-sceptical feminists, but known consorters with Nazis.

Whether this is a fair characterisation of Kellie-Jay Keen and the other rally organiser Angie Jones, will be something I suspect we will be hearing more about.

Deeming was blindsided by the material, which was read to her by Pesutto’s chief-of-staff Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez without any attempt to provide context for the statements.

Moira Deeming and Kellie-Jay Keen. Picture: YouTube

As the meeting went on it became clear however that the neo-Nazis and the organisers’ alleged associations with neo-Nazis was not really what the argument was about.

Though no one ever said so bluntly, the question was whether Deeming was capable of shutting up about all this trans stuff and becoming a team player.

The judge is not being asked to rule on that of course, he’s being asked to decide whether Deeming was defamed.

But underneath the legal dispute is a political dispute: how should Liberal Party in Victoria respond to the progressive social agenda of the governing Labor Party.

The judge is being asked to decide whether Deeming was defamed. Picture: Josie Hayden

The leadership group clings to the view that has held sway for most of Liberal history: that differences over social issues should be minimised and cauterised into conscience votes so the party can get back to talking about the “mainstream” – the word Southwick used.

Deeming doesn’t want to minimise social issues – the trans issue is why she is in politics.

To the leadership this is an anathema.

At one point on the recording she was castigated for hanging out with Katharine Deves, who was not only a federal candidate as recently as 2022, but last time I checked, still a member of Liberal Party.

Pesutto also seemed particularly annoyed that Deeming’s attendance at the rally had mucked up his strategy for the coming week of parliament.

His confidence about how much attention Victorians might be paying to what he was up to in that forum bordered on the delusional.

John Pesutto seemed particularly annoyed that Deeming’s attendance at the rally had mucked up his strategy for the coming week of parliament. Picture: Josie Hayden

At one point he claimed he had Daniel Andrews “on the ropes” something that would have come as a surprise not just to that retired statesman but the Victorian public as well.

As the recording went on it became clear that whatever reassurances she gave them of future good behaviour – and she made plenty of concessions – they were intent on one outcome: her exit from the parliamentary Liberal Party.

Though there was a suggestion about her putting out a statement that satisfied them, it was not seriously pursued.

At one point Pesutto even suggested Deeming might be happier as an independent.

After deliberating for 20 minutes the leadership returned and Deeming was told Pesutto would be moving her expulsion.

That she would remain a member of Liberal Party with all the attendant embarrassment this might cause does not seem to have crossed their minds.

It was shabby stuff. Back for more tomorrow!

Originally published as James Campbell: Underneath the legal dispute is a political dispute