Moira Deeming issues third legal notice to John Pesutto, giving him seven days to agree to demands
Expelled Liberal Moira Deeming has threatened a third defamation action against embattled Opposition Leader John Pesutto, giving him just seven days to accept her demands.
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Expelled Liberal Moira Deeming has issued a third legal threat to Opposition Leader John Pesutto, giving him just seven days to accept her demands.
Mrs Deeming lawyers served a third concerns notice against Mr Pesutto on Friday, accusing the leader of causing “irreparable damage to her reputation” and subjecting her to intense vilification online.
Mr Pesutto moved to expel Mrs Deeming in March after she attended a Let Women Speak rally on the steps of Parliament House which was stormed by neo-Nazis.
The notice again accuses Mr Pesutto of engaging in a “calculated” campaign to “damage Mrs Deeming’s reputation as widely and as quickly as possible in order to achieve his objective of expelling her from the Parliamentary Liberal Party”.
“He has repeatedly published statements about Mrs Deeming, from 19 March 2023 onwards, which have caused irreparable damage to her reputation, given the public reaction to and the republication and dissemination of those statements in mainstream media, social media and elsewhere,” it states.
“Mr Pesutto has not made an offer of amends and has not offered to take any steps to resolve the complaints. It appears unlikely, therefore, that he will do otherwise in relation to this third Concerns Notice.”
Some of the “defamatory” comments include that Mrs Deeming “helped neo-Nazis by working with them to promote their hateful agenda of vilification and hate” and that she “deliberately gave neo-Nazis a platform on the steps of Parliament”.
“Each of the imputations is baseless and False,” the letter states.
Mrs Deeming has threatened to launch defamation proceedings unless Mr Pesutto publishes the following apology:
On 20 March 2023, I gave a press conference and made a number of statements
about Moira Deeming’s promotion of and participation in the ‘Let Women Speak’
event on 18 March 2023.
I also made statements about her subsequently.
In these statements, I suggested that she had helped promote and assist others
with Neo-Nazi sympathies to pursue a hateful agenda to vilify others.
Neo-Nazis gatecrashed the event, and they raised Nazi salutes on the steps of parliament
House.
I suggested that Moira Deeming had celebrated these neo-Nazis’ attendance and I blamed her for their attendance.
I sought her expulsion from the Parliamentary Liberal Party on the basis she was unfit to be a Member and, as a result of my statements, she was expelled.
I now accept that the statements I made about Moira Deeming are false and
seriously defamatory of her.
I accept that she has no association with neo-Nazis or anyone with links to Nazism and should not have been expelled from the Parliamentary Liberal Party.
I fully regret making these statements. I unreservedly withdraw them and I
undertake not to repeat them.
I sincerely apologise to Moira Deeming for the harm, hurt and distress which she
has suffered and which I caused her and her family by making those false
statements.
Mr Pesutto has been instructed to agree to issue the apology within seven days and to keep it in a “prominent position” on his website and all of his social media platforms for a period of 14 days.
Other demands include that the leader will agree to “never repeat or republish” any of the statements outlined in the legal notice about Mrs Deeming.
It comes as the Victorian Liberal Party has ruled out funding its leader’s legal defence, with Mr Pesutto forced to personally fund his legal defence against Mrs Deeming if she takes the matter to court.
Sources have previously estimated that his costs could range up to $1m.
Mr Pesutto has engaged lawyers to respond to the concerns notices sent by Mrs Deeming’s legal team.
The opposition leader’s office refused to comment on the latest legal development.
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