Opposition Leader John Pesutto defamed former MP Moira Deeming, Federal Court judge rules
Opposition Leader John Pesutto rejected the chance to escape his legal battle with ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming for $100,000. Now he’s staring at a $2m financial wipeout.
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Liberal leader John Pesutto was offered a $100,000, no-apology way out of a heated courtroom drama — but now he faces a massive $2m million bill.
The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Pesutto was offered a confidential deal to settle his high-stakes legal case with exiled MP Moira Deeming for $100,000 and legal costs — without having to apologise — nearly a year ago, but now faces a huge legal bill and calls for his resignation.
Mr Pesutto is expected to be hit for at least $1.4m, and potentially $2m after a Federal Court judge ruled he defamed exiled MP Moira Deeming.
Delivering his much-anticipated judgment on Thursday following the high-stakes trial, Justice David O’Callaghan ordered Mr Pesutto to pay $300,000 in damages.
Mr Pesutto is set to address the media at 2.30pm.
Since the judgment, Mrs Deeming has told reporters she expects to be welcomed back into the Liberal Party, saying: “I have every right to be there. I did nothing wrong.”
Justice O’Callaghan found Mr Pesutto’s defences of public interest, honest opinion and common law qualified privilege failed.
He also said the defence of contextual truth did not arise.
Sources close to the case said, once the legal costs of Deeming and Pesutto were factored in, the bill for the Liberal leader would top $1.4m, and could be around $2m.
But in determining any costs orders, Justice O’Callaghan can take into account any offers that may have been made to settle the matter ahead of trial.
The Herald Sun understands Mr Pesutto made a “substantial offer” to Mrs Deeming to settle out of court.
‘Shocked’ Kennett’s offer to Pesutto
Jeff Kennett has vowed to do “whatever I can” to help Mr Pesutto fund the hefty legal bill.
The former Liberal Premier also took aim at MPs who were privately calling for Mr Pesutto’s resignation.
“If there are people talking telling him to resign, they ought to put their name on the record,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Put up or shut up.”
Mr Kennett, who is a backer of Mr Pesutto, said he was glad the court case was over.
“Like many others, I was shocked at the decision,” he said.
“Now we’ve got to move on. To me, it’s finished, it’s over. It’s got financial consequences which we need to address … (but) I’ll do whatever I can to help him.
“(My message to John is) Put it behind you.
“It’s a bigger test of the party to see how the party unites behind the leader.”
Mr Kennett said he was worried that the verdict could dissuade people from running for politics.
“The thing that worries me about this, if a politician takes another politician to court, they have to put their assets on the line? Who is going to stand for parliament?
“I think there will be a lot of sympathy out there for John. Had he been a Minister for the crown, the public would be paying for this.”
Mr Pesutto was sued by Ms Deeming over claims he painted her as a Nazi sympathiser after a women’s rights rally she organised was gatecrashed by a group of white supremacists on the steps of parliament in March 2023.
Mr Pesutto moved to expel Mrs Deeming from the parliamentary party days after the Let Women Speak rally – with the expulsion taking effect several weeks later.
She remains in parliament as an independent MP on the crossbench.
Both Mr Pesutto and Mrs Deeming took to the stand across multiple days a weeks-long public trial.
As Justice O’Callaghan delivered his ruling, UK women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen – who attended the rally with Mrs Deeming – posted on X, “Oooooo delightful”.
Oooooo delightful #DeemingvPesutto
— Kellie-Jay Keen (@ThePosieParker) December 11, 2024
Ms Keen said Mr Pesutto’s “defamation and smear campaign” against Mrs Deeming had been “the most egregious and calculated … to ensure our concerns were lost in vile, dishonest and, frankly, criminal accusations of the most serious nature.”
On 18th March 2023 brave women gathered in Melbourne to speak about women’s rights and the safeguarding of children. #LetWomenSpeakMelbourne was organised by women, including @MoiraDeemingMP and @angijones, to give a much needed voice to those who feel silenced by a captured…
— Kellie-Jay Keen (@ThePosieParker) December 12, 2024
Deeming expecting Liberal return
In a press conference at parliament on Thursday afternoon, Moira Deeming said she expects to be welcomed back into the party.
“I was unjustly expelled. It makes sense to me that would happen,” she said.
“My door is open if anyone wants to speak to me.
“I have every right to be there. I did nothing wrong.
“I should not have had to go to court. This could have all been avoided.”
“Not one Liberal Party value was honoured or furthered in Victoria by this relentless and remorseless campaign to discredit me and everyone who stood by me,” she said.
Asked if she wanted an apology from Mr Pesutto, Mrs Deeming said: “The time for asking and demanding things from that man, that ship sailed ages ago. The judge has given me something even better and I am really looking forward to getting back to doing what I was supposed to do.”
Deeming thanks God for court win
“I am grateful to God for this outcome,” Ms Deeming said in a statement following the judgment.
She again thanked the court for its “careful and prompt consideration of my case” and praised her lawyers “whose dedication, expertise and integrity is unmatched”.
“The judge found that I was defamed in five separate publications and that each of those also caused serious harm to my reputation,” she said.
“Every single one of Mr Pesutto’s defences failed.
“This judgment is a public acknowledgment that there was never any justification – legal, moral or political – for what the Opposition Leader did to me and to my family.”
She said the organisers and attendees of the 2023 Melbourne “Let Women Speak” Rally “did nothing wrong and it is shameful that they were treated without fairness or respect by so many in public office”.
“I will continue to fight for the rights of parents, women and children – and I know I won’t be alone,” she added.
“I am pleased with this result and relieved to have been vindicated.
“It has been an incredibly tough 22 months for me and my family but I can now start to move forward with the judgment today clearing my name.
“Thank you to everyone who stood by me and defended me despite personal and political differences and regardless of the cost – friends, strangers, opponents, Liberal members and colleagues.
“Thanks to everyone who prayed, wrote, donated and told the truth. And finally, thank you to my family, especially my husband.”
‘A lot of pressure for John to resign’
One Liberal MP, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said party members were “in shock” and “reeling from this”.
“There’s now a lot of pressure for John to resign,” they said.
A senior Liberal Party figure told the Herald Sun “every grassroots party member” would be expecting Mr Pesutto to resign, as he urged others in the leadership team who defended his “poor judgement” to “seriously consider their own futures”.
“Everyone is looking forward to the Liberal Party Room acting swiftly and decisively to put this unfortunate period behind us and focusing on defeating the worst Labor Government in the state’s history,” he said.
“Additionally the wider leadership that had defended and enabled John’s poor judgement for so long, resulting in serious damage to the Party, should be seriously considering their future.”
Another Liberal said the result was a “political catastrophe for JP” and that his position was now “totally untenable “.
“John should do the decent thing and stand down immediately,” he said.
A Victorian Liberal factional heavyweight said the judgement “confirms what many in the party room have known for a long time”.
“John’s judgment is very poor,” they said.
“The current Victorian polls aren’t pro John Pesutto, they’re anti-Labor and anti-Jacinta Allan. The proverbial drover’s dog could lead the Liberals to victory in 2026.
“It’s time for a fresh start. Georgie (Crozier) and David should go now as well to allow generational change, and Moira should be given the option to return to the Party, should she wish to.”
But one Coalition colleague said despite the decision, “John remains the best person for the job”.
“Let’s move on – onwards and upwards,” they said.
Pesutto’s position as leader ‘untenable’: Deputy Premier
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll said Mr Pesutto’s position as Opposition Leader had been rendered “untenable” by the ruling.
“John Pesutto’s position as Leader of the Opposition and indeed alternative Premier is completely in shreds today,” he said.
“His position is untenable. 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, give an apology to his party 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. He needs to do the right thing and resign.
“This has been a tawdry affair that has exposed the Liberal Parry as being divided.”
Mr Carroll said Mr Southwick’s position was also unsustainable.
“You can’t have a deputy leader of a political party sitting in meetings taping colleagues without them knowing,” he said.
“The leadership of the Victorian Liberal Party is today in crisis.”
Pesutto made defamatory imputations: Judge
Reading out a brief summary of his judgment, Justice O’Callaghan said Mr Pesutto had made defamatory imputations in five publications: a media release, interviews on 3AW and the ABC, at a press conference and in an expulsion motion and dossier.
In the media release, he found Mr Pesutto defamed her by conveying she was “unfit to belong to the Victorian Parliamentary Liberal Party because she knowingly associates with neo-Nazis”.
He said anyone listening to the 3AW interview would be left with the impression Ms Deeming “associates with Nazis and is thus unfit to be a member of the Parliamentary Liberal Party”.
Mr Pesutto’s interview on the ABC also conveyed this, Justice O’Callaghan said.
He said the “dominant impression” carried by what Mr Pesutto said during a 33-minute press conference is that “Mrs Deeming participated in a rally and knowingly worked with Ms Keen and other organisers to help them promote their odious Nazi agenda and their white supremacist and ethno-fascist views”.
Justice O’Callaghan found Ms Deeming has established the publication of each of the five impugned publications “has caused, or is likely to cause, serious harm to her reputation”.
“The imputations that I have found to have been carried are very serious ones,” Justice O’Callaghan said.
“In my view … they were inherently likely, using mass media to communicate a message to the general public in Victoria, to cause serious harm to Mrs Deeming’s reputation.
“That is especially so in circumstances where the leader of her own Parliamentary party was moving for her expulsion from it.
“The court has concluded that the appropriate award of damages to Mrs Deeming for non-economic loss is $300,000.”
But he declined to make any award for aggravated damages.
Former Liberal colleague congratulates Deeming
Liberal MP Bev McArthur congratulated Mrs Deeming on her win and for “standing up for women’s rights”, and thanked Justice O’Callaghan for his work.
As for the future of Mr Pesutto as leader, Mrs McArthur said that was up to the party to decide.
“This has been a long, drawn out process and one that has not been helpful for the party,” she said.
“I just hope we can finally put this behind us.”
Deeming responds outside court
Outside court, Ms Deeming said she was “delighted” with the result.
“I’m so delighted with today’s result and so grateful to the court for their prompt consideration,” she said.
“I just want to say thank you to everybody who stood by with me.”
She said she would like time to read the judgment before she intended to hold a press conference later today.
Deeming arrives, Pesutto a no-show
Dressed in a lilac pants suit, Ms Deeming arrived at the Federal Court surrounded by her legal team, including top defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou, at 9.55am.
She was full of smiles but would not comment when asked if she was feeling confident ahead of the ruling.
The Herald Sun understands Mr Pesutto will not be attending court for the judgment.
Defiant Pesutto says he’s going nowhere
A defiant John Pesutto has vowed to continue leading the Victorian Liberal Party regardless of the verdict of the bombshell defamation case.
Asked on Wednesday whether he would continue in the role regardless of the verdict, Mr Pesutto told the Herald Sun: “As Leader of the Opposition and alternative Premier, I will continue to spend every waking moment fighting for the issues Victorians care deeply about.”
“My focus remains firmly on those who are hurting because of the rising cost of living, massive taxes, project blowouts, crumbling roads and savage cuts to services under Labor,” he said.
“As a team we have been making very important progress in highlighting the financial recklessness and incompetence of the Allan Labor government, while setting out our vision for Victoria.”
The Liberal Party has enjoyed a bout of success in recent weeks, with polls showing rising support for Mr Pesutto as preferred Premier.
Colleagues in Pesutto’s camp said he wouldn’t step down regardless of the verdict and would have a strong backing from the party room.
“It’s not John going backwards, it’s Jacinta (Allan),” said one loyalist.
But others said his fate was dependant on a favourable outcome.
Several Liberal Party sources said while no MPs were actively canvassing votes to challenge Mr Pesutto’s leadership, if Justice David O’Callaghan’s hands down a “disastrous” Judgment, then colleagues might consider making moves.
The names of Brad Battin and Sam Groth were repeatedly put forward as the most likely challengers.
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