John Pesutto ‘in death roll’ as Moira Deeming and Victorian Liberals are in limbo

Victorian Liberal MPs are weighing what to do with leader John Pesutto and exiled politician Moira Deeming after the latest secret recording is revealed.

Barrister Sue Chrysanthou and Moira Deeming outside the Federal Court in Melbourne. Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

A busted culture of Victorian Liberals secretly recording other Victorian Liberals is threatening to bring down another Liberal leader and torpedo exiled MP Moira Deeming’s return to the parliamentary party room.

Word this week of yet another secret recording of senior party figures – this time by Mrs Deeming – has further shaken the foundations of the Victorian Liberals, making it at least the eighth such breach since Liberal premier Ted Baillieu quit his job in 2013 after covert tapes were revealed.

Former Liberal leader Matthew Guy’s leadership was severely dented after other secret recordings were unearthed in 2017 of a Liberal official talking about donations after a lobster dinner that were then linked to an alleged crime boss.

Senior Liberals now believe incumbent leader John Pesutto is “in a death roll” as he bids to keep his job after a Federal Court defamation battle with Mrs Deeming unearthed mountains of dirty laundry, including a secret tape recorded by deputy leader David Southwick.

Mr Southwick’s hold on the deputy leadership is also in question as MPs privately debate whether Mr Pesutto should be dumped after he booted Mrs Deeming from the parliamentary party room over a women’s rights rally that was gate-crashed by neo-Nazis.

While Mrs Deeming is under scrutiny, there is a strong belief a party leader must carry the most responsibility.

The Weekend Australian reported several weeks ago that there was pressure to dump Mr Pesutto to ensure federal leader Peter Dutton had a decent path to the federal election in Victoria, where cost of living is biting hard and state Labor has blown its budget.

Senior state Liberal MPs said several leadership candidates had emerged with no clear consensus over who would win, although a spill of leadership positions was the most likely outcome.

This could allow frontbencher Sam Groth to be promoted to the deputy leadership and then a battle between frontbenchers Brad Battin and James Newbury for the top job.

“He’s got a big problem,’’ one MP said of Mr Pesutto. “Are there lots of conversations? Definitely.’’

But there is also anger at Mrs Deeming’s failure to accept a resolution to the defamation action, stopping the party from bleeding for months when Labor was on its knees, multiple sources said.

There have been at least eight secret recordings conducted since Mr Baillieu stood down in 2013, including cases of Liberals targeting journalists. They include the infamous Baillieu tapes, the Guy tapes, the recording of former state director Damien Mantach boasting about how to get around political donation laws, and the recording of former Liberal federal vice-president Karina Okotel by an internal party enemy.

In the Baillieu tapes, more than four hours of audio recordings revealed former Coalition government adviser Tristan Weston was paid $22,500 by the Liberal Party after becoming embroiled in a split between the then police chief commissioner and a deputy commissioner.

In 2014, The Weekend Australian obtained a secret recording of former party state director Mr Mantach detailing how the Victorian Liberal Party exploited legal loop­holes to hide large donors’ names from scrutiny.

In 2020, The Australian revealed the Liberal Party’s hard right actively recruited members to branches as part of a plot to promote religious candidates for preselection and place conservative warlords in electorates to organise internal activities.

The strategy was laid out in a discussion between Ms Okotel and another senior Liberal Party member. 

Mrs Deeming helped organise the Let Women Speak rally 18 months ago and neo-Nazis gate-crashed the event, although she says she was unaware they were coming.

Mr Pesutto and a majority of MPs then expelled her from the parliamentary Liberal Party and she alleged Mr Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser, which she isn’t. Mr Pesutto denies this allegation.

In her recording, taken before the rally was held and aired in court this week, Mrs Deeming tells Mr Pesutto and another frontbencher that gay and trans people were her biggest supporters.

“I could get a row of lesbians to stand around you at a press conference and back you up,’’ she reportedly said.

It could be months before the result of the defamation case is known. If Mr Pesutto is perceived to have lost the case, he will lose the leadership.