Court hits play on second secret recording in John Pesutto versus Moira Deeming defamation trial
Moira Deeming told John Pesutto to defend her against claims she held transphobic and homophobic views in a second secret recording played in the Federal Court defamation trial.
Independent Liberal MP Moira Deeming told John Pesutto that she did not hold transphobic views and urged him to defend her in a second secret tape aired in her high-profile Federal Court defamation trial against the Victorian Opposition leader.
The recording, which captures a meeting between Ms Deeming, Mr Pesutto and Liberal frontbencher Georgie Crozier, was made by the MP and women’s rights activist on February 23 last year and was played to the court on Thursday.
In the audio, the two members of the Liberal leadership team are heard talking to Ms Deeming about her views on sex-based rights and their fears the media wanted to “tear us up”.
The meeting followed the ousted MP’s maiden speech to parliament just two days prior, which at the time was slammed by then premier Daniel Andrews, and media reports on the MP’s emails during her time at Melton City Council.
The tape begins with Mr Pesutto greeting Ms Deeming before declaring “we’ve got a big problem”.
He tells the MP that he had Labor MP Danny Pearson “on the ropes” but that his work would be “washed away” due to the media’s interest turning to her.
“I would never ask anyone to change their views and I mean that, but we’re going to have to work out how we do this in a way which allows the party to reach out broadly across a cross-section of the community and win elections,” Mr Pesutto said in the tape.
“We just can’t do that, we’ll just get smashed.
“I’m going to have to form my language because it’s going to be one mean press conference. They are going to tear me to shreds.”
The Opposition Leader said it would be perceived that the Liberal Party supported harmful speech and hated same-sex attracted and transgender people. “We’re going to have to come up with something because I’m going to get torn apart, and not just me, everyone is,” he said.
In the recording, Ms Deeming is heard asserting she does not hold homophobic or transphobic views. “I would never let it stand if they say ‘what do you think about her transphobic views?’ and you say ‘oh well she has views that are different to mine’. That will enrage me to no end. I don’t have transphobic views and you should defend me,” the then new MP said. “My biggest fans are gay people and trans people.”
Ms Crozier said those in parliament would have a go at her “every single day” and that she was getting emails criticising the MP. “I think they’re going to do it because they smell blood in the water because no one’s coming out with a strong response. If we just bit back and said ‘actually no single homophobic or transphobic thing was said’ … they’ve got nothing,” Ms Deeming said.
She said she had asked someone to look at her maiden speech but that no one got back to her, to which Ms Crozier said she was there to support her.
Stories published in the media about Ms Deeming’s emails during her time at Melton City Council were also discussed.
The emails revealed what some media reports characterised as “extremist views”.
“You are not as vulnerable as you think you are. There’s nothing. There’s no smoking gun,” Ms Deeming sought to reassure her senior colleagues.
Later, Ms Deeming’s lawyer Sue Chrysanthou asked Ms Crozier about the March 19 meeting held after the Let Women Speak rally which was secretly taped by deputy Liberal leader David Southwick. The senior Liberal MP said Ms Deeming “wasn’t convincing me” in the meeting.
“If I was a new MP and had been asked to come into the leadership, I would have done anything to say, ‘I’m so sorry, what can I do, how can I fix this?’ ”
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