Secret recording of meeting between Liberal leaders and Deeming to be played in court

A clandestine recording of a 70-minute meeting between the Victorian Liberal leadership and ousted member Moira Deeming will be played to the Federal Court on Tuesday, in the defamation trial against Opposition Leader John Pesutto.

The court heard the secret audio was only handed to Deeming’s legal team a week ago despite the meeting taking place in March 2023, a day after the MP attended the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis on the steps of the Victorian parliament.

Moira Deeming (centre) arrives at the Federal Court on Monday, with barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC (right).Credit: Jason South

That meeting ended with the leadership team telling Deeming they would seek to expel her. How the meeting unfolded will be a focus of the case.

On Monday, on the first day of the trial, Deeming’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou, SC, told the court the recording of the meeting would show Pesutto had given false statements. Chrysanthou said the audio, recorded by deputy Liberal leader David Southwick, was only provided by Pesutto’s legal team last week.

The court was also provided with text messages showing Pesutto considered expelling Deeming on the day of the Let Women Speak rally.

“I think we might need to discuss Moira. Do we really think her misjudgement and worse won’t keep hurting us. Nazis this time. What next?” Pesutto said in a text to Southwick on the night of March 18, 2023.

John Pesutto arrives at the Federal Court with wife Betty on Monday.Credit: Jason South

The court heard Pesutto had also said to former MP Louise Staley, now his chief of staff, that he agreed he should consider expelling her from the Liberal party room. “I don’t even understand why she wants to be in the Liberal Party.”

On Saturday, The Age revealed Deeming was coached by political commentator and Liberal operative Peta Credlin on how to defeat the bid to boot her from the party room.

Thirty pages of screenshots of texts between the pair reveal Credlin, a Sky News anchor, offered her views on how to influence a party room vote, which MPs were “soft” and could be turned, and how to media manage the saga, which is now 18 months old.

The saga also threatened to derail the federal Liberal Party’s chances in the crucial byelection in the federal seat of Aston, in April last year. The court was read a text message federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sent Pesutto asking he stop discussing the matter with media.

Deeming addresses the Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne in March last year.Credit: Youtube

“John, for the sake of Aston, could you please put this issue to bed today,” Dutton texted.

Chrysanthou, in her opening statements, told the court the Let Women Speak rally had descended into “mayhem” and that several protest groups were on the steps of parliament at once.

She said the neo-Nazis were an entirely separate group to those attending Let Women Speak, and that they were speaking over the top of the other groups and detracted from their message.

Chrysanthou said Deeming was highly regarded and viewed as courageous for speaking her mind until Pesutto defamed her.

Neo-Nazis square off against police at the rally.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“He had it in for her over her very strongly held, long-held views on safety for women,” she told the court.

The court was shown offensive and threatening messages of abuse Deeming received, including threats to her children.

Deeming alleges Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser for her role in the gatecrashed rally. Pesutto is fighting the claim.

Deeming will be the first to give evidence and face cross-examination during the three-week hearing.

Pesutto settled separate defamation action launched against him by UK anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and Melbourne woman Angela Jones, who played leading roles in the rally.

The opposition leader previously said Deeming had associated with organisers and speakers who shared platforms “with people who promote Nazi views or sympathies”. He previously said Deeming was not a fit and proper person to be a member of his party.

Deeming was suspended from the Liberal Party for nine months in a last-minute compromise deal but was ultimately expelled weeks later by the party room after threatening to bring in lawyers.

She remains a member of the broader party but now sits on the crossbench of the Victorian parliament’s upper house.

Deeming’s statement of claim alleges Pesutto defamed her through media releases, a dossier, the March expulsion motion, in press conferences, radio and television interviews, and in news articles.

She is seeking damages for substantial hurt, distress and embarrassment she says she suffered. Her statement of claim said she feared for her safety and financial security as a result of a “campaign” to expel her.

Pesutto, who is contesting the claims, has argued he was expressing an honest opinion, that circulating his position was in the public interest and that he acted reasonably. Barrister Matthew Collins, KC, will also argue Pesutto’s comments were substantially true.

Pesutto says he has repeatedly and unequivocally acknowledged publicly that he does not believe Deeming is a neo-Nazi or white supremacist.

The trial is expected to be uncomfortable for the party and could destabilise Pesutto’s leadership. Liberal MPs, including shadow ministers, will give evidence both for and against their leader, with their private correspondence also likely to be exposed through the trial.

Pesutto has repeatedly said he had exhausted every effort to settle.

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