‘I needed to protect myself’: Southwick defends secret recording of Deeming

David Southwick MP has defended his decision to secretly record a meeting with Moira Deeming, claiming it was to “protect” himself.

Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick has defended recording a secret tape of a leadership meeting with ousted MP Moira Deeming claiming it was to “protect me and the party”.

The shadow minister told the Federal Court he made a “split moment” decision without telling his colleagues to record a meeting of the leadership with Mrs Deeming about a rally she helped organise that was gatecrashed by saluting neo-Nazis in March 2023.

Mrs Deeming was suspended then expelled from the party, and is suing Opposition Leader John Pesutto for defamation claiming he painted her as a neo-Nazi sympathiser, an allegation he denies.

Mr Southwick said the day after the rally, when five members of the leadership party and media manager grilled Mrs Deeming over the Let Women Speak rally and its organisers, he decided when walking into the gathering to record it because he felt he couldn’t trust Mrs Deeming.

Mr Southwick said he decided to tape the interview because he could not trust Ms Deeming. Picture: Getty Images

“She lied to me and I felt I needed to protect myself from what was about to happen,” said Mr Southwick, who is Jewish.

Describing the March 18 rally that 20 neo-Nazis gatecrashed and performed offensive salutes on the steps of parliament as “one of the darkest days” for the Jewish community to be exposed to, he said he felt Mrs Deeming had trivialised what happened.

That was because she celebrated the Let Women Speak rally by drinking champagne with organisers in a video posted online after he called her seeking that she distance herself from white supremicists who crashed the event.

In the video, organisers questioned who the men dressed in black were, and whether they were neo-Nazis or police in costume.

Mr Southwick said if a person performs a Nazi salute, “they’re Nazis”, and said the behaviour in the video of the organisers “was so offensive to me”.

“I felt I couldn’t trust Mrs Deeming ... she lied to me.”

Mr Southwick said his conversation with Ms Deeming grew ’very very odd’. Picture: David Crosling

Mr Southwick said as a member of the Jewish community “the whole thing was very personal to me” and he felt “very vulnerable about that (leadership meeting) conversation”.

“The whole thing was very triggering,” he told the court.

Mr Southwick said “the tape was very personal to me and it was to protect me and the party”.

“I had hoped that tape would never have to be used, that’s why I never thought about the tape,” he told the court.

“It was only there if things couldn’t be resolved.”

Under cross examination by Mrs Deeming’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, he denied that he didn’t release the tape because it wouldn’t assist him, his party or Mr Pesutto.

Hours after the Let Women Speak rally on March 18, Mr Southwick called Mrs Deeming and urged her to distance herself from the saluting Nazis who attended.

“She said to me, it was more her words that she wasn’t really aware of them, that they were even there,” he said of their conversation about the Nazis’ attendance at the rally.

But he said their conversation became “very very odd” because Mrs Deeming then said the Nazis made the women at the rally feel “very unsafe”.

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto arrives at the Federal Court. Picture: David Crosling

“That for me was the absolute trigger moment,” he said, stating he told Mrs Deeming, “you need to distance yourself from these Nazis … I was very, very specific and it was as much for her and for me and for the Liberal Party”.

Mr Southwick told the court he informed his leader of the secret tape in November or December last year, after he learned Mr Pesutto was being sued and when he also potentially faced legal action.

“I didn’t go into a lot of detail .. I knew that I had a recording and I pretty much said the recording is there if you need it, it’s there,” Mr Southwick said.

“I still held hope that it wouldn’t ultimately get to where it is now.

“I never saw this actually ever going to court so I hoped the tape was never actually needed.”

Mr Southwick said he hoped the defamation case would settle, much like the cases brought by rally organisers Angie Jones and Kellie-Jay Keen against Mr Pesutto.

Barrister Ms Chrysanthou put to Mr Southwick that the reason he didn’t listen to the tape or refer to it in his affidavit to the court was because it was “inconsistent with the evidence you wanted to give”.

“No,” he replied.