Pesutto defiant despite $300,000 defamation loss to Moira Deeming
A defiant John Pesutto has challenged rivals to blast him from the leadership in the wake of a damning Federal Court defamation judgment that has awarded expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming $300,000 in damages.
A defiant John Pesutto has challenged rivals to blast him from the leadership in the wake of a damning Federal Court defamation judgment that has awarded expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming $300,000 in damages.
A storm of speculation about the Victorian Opposition Leader’s future erupted after judge David O’Callaghan awarded Ms Deeming an emphatic victory in the high-stakes legal case.
Ms Deeming said it would make sense if she were to be invited back into the Liberal partyroom, and that she had “every right to be there”.
She said she still believed in the Liberal Party, and would be willing to work in a Pesutto-led Liberal Party.
“If you look at the Liberal Party platform, they are good values and it’s run by volunteers and the volunteers deserve better than what happened to the person they preselected, and the volunteers deserve better than what has now happened under their Liberal Party logo,” she said.
“I was made out to be a troublemaker, that’s actually not true.”
Senior Liberals said the party was in a state of shock after the judgment on Thursday, declaring it as “an ugly day” for Mr Pesutto and admitting it left his leadership “uncertain” at best.
“He needs to convince us that we can’t win without him,’’ one Liberal MP told The Australian.
One option open to Ms Deeming’s supporters would be to move a motion backed by five MPs to readmit her to the partyroom.
Mr Pesutto, adopting a tough-it-out strategy straight out of the Dan Andrews playbook, described the Federal Court judgment as “disappointing” but said he was committed to the leadership and to holding the Allan Labor government to account.
“I’ve always been a fighter and I’ve always been a fighter for the right reasons and for the right people, the Victorian people,” the Opposition Leader said.
He said it was “for the partyroom to decide” whether to admit Ms Deeming again but that he personally would not support it.
He also said there was nothing in the judgment that would interfere with his ability to perform as leader of the state Liberals.
Mr Pesutto defended himself against Judge O’Callaghan’s finding that he gave “lengthy and non-responsive answers” during cross-examination.
“I gave answers that were as direct as they could be to questions that were often very difficult to follow, frankly, from counsel,” Mr Pesutto said.
Ms Deeming, an independent MP since her expulsion from the Liberal partyroom, sued Mr Pesutto over allegations that he falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser after she helped organise and attended a Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
She said “not one Liberal Party value” was honoured or furthered in Victoria by the “relentless and remorseless campaign” to discredit her and her supporters.
“But I was never going to let it go unchallenged in this state and under my Liberal Party logo that innocent women rallying against the destruction of every single common sense safeguard designed to protect them and their children could be attacked and then scapegoated as Nazis and bigots,” Ms Deeming said.
“Those of us in this fight to restore parental rights, sex-based rights for women and safeguards for children, we are in every political party, we are in every workplace, every union, every family. We will never run out of energy, we will never be crushed and we are going to survive whatever it is that you want to throw at us, and then we will win.”
The notional frontrunner to replace Mr Pesutto would be opposition police spokesman Brad Battin but he would only run if he knew he could win, and at this stage doesn’t have the numbers.
The second favourite is former professional tennis ace Sam Groth whose support in the party was less than Mr Battin but he is ambitious and growing in confidence.
The most experienced Liberal MP, Michael O’Brien, is resisting attempts to get him to run.
Liberal MPs also are discussing James Newbury as being in the race for the leadership.
“It could be that you have a leadership team of Battin and Groth or Battin and Newbury,’’ one MP said. “But they are going to have to blast out JP. That doesn’t look easy at this stage.’’
Another MP said Mr Pesutto had failed every test and should go. “He’s had his chance. He should go now,’’ they said.
Judge O’Callaghan found Mr Pesutto defamed Ms Deeming in five media appearances and in a document supporting her expulsion from the parliamentary party, and he dismissed each and every point of defence offered by the Opposition Leader:
Judge O’Callaghan found Mr Pesutto defamed Ms Deeming in a media release by conveying that she was unfit to belong to the Victorian parliamentary Liberal Party because she knowingly associates with neo-Nazis;
In a 3AW interview, by conveying that Ms Deeming associates with Nazis and is thus unfit to be a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party;
In an ABC interview, by conveying that Ms Deeming knowingly associates, or sympathises with, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and is thus unfit to be a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party and the Liberal Party;
At a press conference, by conveying that Ms Deeming participating in a rally and knowingly worked with activist Kellie-Jay Keen and other organisers to help them promote their odious Nazi agenda and their white supremacist views.
In an expulsion motion and dossier, by conveying that Ms Deeming’s conduct in relation to the Let Women Speak rally warranted her expulsion from the Victorian parliamentary Liberal Party and by conveying that she conducted activities in a manner likely to bring discredit on the parliamentary Liberal Party or Victorian parliament by organising, promoting and attending the rally.
Ms Deeming was awarded $300,000 for non-economic loss. Judge O’Callaghan declined to award aggravated damages. A hearing for final orders, including the calculation of interests and costs, will likely occur in the next few days.
But Judge O’Callaghan said he was ultimately unable to conclude that Mr Pesutto gave dishonest evidence about his subjective belief, “as infuriatingly unresponsive as much of his evidence was.”
Judge O’Callaghan wrote that in circumstances where Mr Pesutto repeatedly said he did not believe Ms Deeming was a Nazi, a Nazi sympathiser, a neo-Nazi or that she associated with such people, there was a need for him to take care not to convey she was any of these things, but that he failed to do so.
Judge O’Callaghan said Mr Pesutto’s “perceived urgency” to publish what ended up being defamatory comments about Ms Deeming was driven more by a fear of the political damage that would be inflicted upon his “fledgling” leadership by Victoria’s then-premier Daniel Andrews, than by his professed concern that the Liberal Party and parliament would be brought into disrepute.
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