Moira Deeming lodges defamation case against John Pesutto

In a sign of widening action, Liberal Party MPs David Southwick, Georgie Crozier and Matt Bach have also been sent legal letters.

Expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming. Photograph by Arsineh Houspian.

Expelled Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has lodged her statement of claim against John Pesutto in the Federal Court, formally initiating legal proceedings in expensive defamation action which could cost the Opposition Leader more than a million dollars in legal fees and compensation, if not his job.

The document indicates Mrs Deeming’s lawyers — who include high profile defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou and author of Australia’s seminal textbook on defamation law, Patrick George — will base their argument upon media releases, press conferences and interviews Mr Pesutto gave in the days following a March “Let Women Speak” rally.

They will also draw upon a dossier Mr Pesutto’s office circulated to MPs and the media in seeking support to expel her from the state Liberal partyroom, and utterances he has since made to try to justify his actions.

In a sign the legal action could extend well beyond Mr Pesutto, fellow Liberals David Southwick, Georgie Crozier and Matt Bach — who made up the party’s leadership team at the time of Mrs Deeming’s expulsion — have been sent legal letters warning them to retain all relevant documents and communications, and noting that Mrs Deeming reserves all rights.

Similar letters have been sent to senior Pesutto staff, and Liberal frontbencher James Newbury.

“It brings me no joy to have had to lodge this defamation case in court today, but despite the best efforts of many inside and outside the Liberal Party, unfortunately I have no other avenue to see justice done for myself, my family and all the women involved in “Let Women Speak” that day,” Mrs Deeming told The Australian.

In August, UK women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen — whose organisation Standing for Women UK organised the “Let Women Speak” rally — issued Mr Pesutto, Mr Southwick, Ms Crozier and Dr Bach with defamation concerns notices, giving them 28 days to apologise and pay compensation for making “grossly misconceived, wilfully vexatious, and wretchedly false” claims, or face federal court action.

Ms Keen’s lawyers are understood to be preparing to commence their own action, meaning Mr Pesutto and other MPs could be facing legal threats on multiple fronts.

Moira Deeming and John Pesutto pose for a selfie in happier times, in a photo posted to social media on February 4, 2023. Picture: Facebook

A press release issued by Mr Pesutto on March 19 — the day after the “Let Women Speak” rally — forms a key part of Mrs Deeming’s statement of claim.

The rally was organised to protest against what Mrs Deeming, Ms Keen and their fellow protesters see as the infringement of transgender self-identification laws upon the rights of women and children.

Transgender rights activists held a counter-protest, and a third group of masked men dressed in black taunted the transgender protesters and performed the Nazi salute on the steps of state parliament.

Mrs Deeming and Ms Keen have always maintained that they have no association with the masked men.

In his press release, now the subject of Mrs Deeming’s statement of claim, and still published on his website and that of the Victorian Liberal Party, Mr Pesutto stated that he met with Mrs Deeming to discuss her attendance at the previous day’s rally.

“I discussed her involvement in organising, promoting and participating in a rally with speakers and other organisers who themselves have been publicly associated with far right-wing extremist groups including neo-Nazi activists,” Mr Pesutto said.

“This is not an issue about free speech but a member of the parliamentary party associating with people whose views are abhorrent to my values, the values of the Liberal Party and the wider community.”

Mrs Deeming’s lawyers argue that the press release was “defamatory”, and contained imputations including that Mrs Deeming supports, sympathises with or associates with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and even that she is a white supremacist or neo-Nazi.

Moira Deeming and Kellie-Jay Keen on the day of the “Let Women Speak” protest. Picture: YouTube

The statement of claim makes similar arguments about interviews Mr Pesutto gave to 3AW and the ABC on March 20, as well as a press conference he gave the same day, in which he declared with reference to Mrs Deeming that: “it will never be acceptable in this state of Victoria, as a member of the Liberal Party, to associate with anyone who is connected with or shared platforms with Nazis, white supremacists, ethno-nationalists, or whatever other odious agenda someone wishes to spout.”

“Any question of an association, even indirectly, to Nazis, white supremacists, ethno-fascists or whatever else, is so odious in 2023, as it should be, that I can’t see a way back,” Mr Pesutto said at the time.

Also key to Mrs Deeming’s case is the expulsion motion Mr Pesutto circulated to MPs ahead of the March 27 partyroom meeting at which she was suspended for nine months, and an attached 15-page dossier of ­social media screenshots and media reports – mostly relating to Ms Keen – which purported to justify the claim in the motion that she was associated with “far right-wing extremist groups including neo-Nazi activists.”

Mrs Deeming’s lawyers argue the impact of Mr Pesutto’s public statements about Mrs Deeming “caused hateful conduct by members of the public, including vandalism of Deeming’s Electorate Office sign with ‘Nazi Bigot’ written across her face, retraction of official MP invitations from community functions, social media reactions, threats, jibes, hatred, harassment, abuse, contempt and ridicule through emails, letters and voicemails to Deeming and on social media.”

They argue Mr Pesutto’s role and status as the Leader of the Victorian Liberal Party exacerbated the damage, in that his statements were more likely to be believed in light of his position.

“The serious harm to Deeming’s reputation from the campaign that the media release instigated continues in various and unexpected situations,” the statement of claim argues, citing the example of a meeting Mrs Deeming attended in Scotland in October with two local MPs “who refused to allow photographs taken together with her to be published until and unless her name and reputation was cleared of any association with Nazism.”

Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Luis Enrique Ascui

“On 25 November 2023, Deeming was scheduled to speak at a community forum with a Local Government Councillor, Council Watch (AU) and local residents at a local Church Hall in Werribee, but the Church was inundated with threats and complaints about Deeming’s supposed ‘Nazism’ and so the venue pulled out and the event had to be moved outdoors to a park,” Mrs Deeming’s lawyers state.

The statement of claim notes that Mrs Deeming has issued Mr Pesutto with four concerns notices since May, including one sent to him on Monday, which relates to the March 20 3AW interview.

“Pesutto has not, prior to the filing of this Statement of Claim, made any Offer to make Amends in response in relation to the matters in question generally or in relation to the imputations particularised in the Concerns Notices, and has disputed that the matters in question have caused or are likely to cause serious harm to Deeming’s reputation,” Mrs Deeming’s lawyers state.

“By reason of the publication and republication of the matters complained of, Deeming has been gravely injured in her reputation personally and professionally, and in her career, and has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial hurt, distress and embarrassment and fear for her safety and financial security.”

The statement of claim indicates Mrs Deeming will seek aggravated damages as a result of multiple actions Mr Pesutto took or failed to take, which they allege exacerbated the defamation.

Mr Pesutto’s office has been contacted for comment.