Recording of meeting between John Pesutto, Liberal leadership team and Moira Deeming to be played in court
A federal court has heard John Pesutto concealed a recording of a meeting between his leadership team and Moira Deeming from his own lawyers.
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto failed to tell his lawyers about a secret audio recording of a meeting between his leadership and Moira Deeming, with the expelled MP’s legal team arguing the bombshell evidence contradicts affidavits submitted by senior members of the Liberal team.
In the first day of the three-week defamation trial, Sue Chrysanthou SC, representing Ms Deeming, told the Federal Court in Melbourne that deputy Liberal leader David Southwick recorded a meeting between Mr Pesutto, Mr Southwick, Georgie Crozier, former MP Matthew Bach and former chief of staff Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez and Ms Deeming.
The meeting took place on March 19, just a day after the Let Women Speak rally was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
Justice David O’Callaghan was told that while the recording was handed over to Ms Deeming’s legal team last Monday, Mr Pesutto had known of its existence since December.
The recording is yet to be played to the court, although Ms Chrysanthou said the meeting detailed Ms Deeming’s account of the rally and her views on sex-based rights.
The high-stakes trial will hear evidence from Liberal MPs and could decide the political future of Mr Pesutto.
It is expected that the covert recording will be played for the court on Tuesday and that Ms Deeming will be the first person to take the stand.
The court heard that at the height of tensions between Ms Deeming and Mr Pesutto in March last year, Peter Dutton texted the state Opposition Leader about the possible political fallout given the coming by-election in the federal seat of Aston.
“John for the sake of Aston, can you please put this issue to bed today. No more media please,” the federal Opposition Leader texted Mr Pesutto shortly after the Liberal partyroom moved to suspend Ms Deeming for nine months on March 27.
Text messages between Mr Pesutto and Mr Southwick on the day of the Let Women Speak rally also came to light and show the Liberal leader was considering getting rid of Ms Deeming on the day of the rally.
“I think we might need to discuss Moira. Do we really think her misjudgment and worse won’t keep hurting us. Nazis this time. What next?” Mr Pesutto wrote on the eve of March 18 2023.
His chief of staff Louise Staley also sent Mr Pesutto a text that night saying: “You need to consider expelling her from the partyroom for consorting with Nazis. You can’t have the link and be elected to government”, to which Mr Pesutto replied with “Agree”.
The following day, Mr Pesutto wrote a draft media release at noon that stated Ms Deeming had tendered her resignation. But after the leadership meeting that evening, the wording was changed to expulsion.
“Mr Pesutto (had the) intention to force a resignation out of my client, and if he couldn’t achieve that he planned to expel her,” Ms Chrysanthou said.
“Mr Pesutto comes to this court and asks your honour to find that before he tarred her with the Nazi brush in March of last year, she had a bad reputation.”
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto arrives at the Federal Court in Melbourne for day one of the defamation trial brought against him by expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming.@australianpic.twitter.com/2wgMleAUMk
— Tricia Rivera (@tricialeerivera) September 16, 2024
She said Mr Pesutto went on a “campaign of destruction against my client” following the rally.
Ms Deeming is suing her former boss over his efforts to expel her from the partyroom, and over allegations he falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser.
Both Ms Deeming and Mr Pesutto were in court on Monday.
It is expected the recording will be played for the court on Tuesday and Ms Deeming will be the first person to take the stand.
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