John Pesutto’s lawyers argue Moira Deeming’s reputation was ‘enhanced’ after-party expulsion

Exiled MP Moira Deeming’s reputation was not damaged by anything John Pesutto had said or done, lawyers for the opposition leader argued in the Federal Court.

Whether the state’s opposition leader John Pesutto defamed exiled MP Moira Deeming and if so, how much damages should be awarded, are decisions now in the hands of a judge.

After 19 days of evidence and submissions in the high-stakes Federal Court defamation trial between the two politicians, Justice David O’Callaghan on Thursday reserved his decision.

The experienced judge will now trawl through what he described as a “mountain” of evidence and transcripts ahead of making his judgment.

Moira Deeming leaving the Federal Court in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

He had indicated he hoped to return with his findings in December, but said it could be pushed out to the new year.

The trial centred around Mrs Deeming’s claims her reputation had been damaged and she had sustained serious harm following a series of defamatory publications and comments by Mr Pesutto.

She said a media release Mr Pesutto sent to more than 750 journalists explaining why he had moved to expel her from the Liberal Party after she organised and attended a rally gatecrashed by white supremacists was defamatory and implied she was a neo-Nazi.

He had also defamed her in a dossier justifying her expulsion, and in interviews on ABC News Breakfast and 3AW Radio, she alleges.

“It’s hard to find a sentence where he doesn’t defame Mrs Deeming,” her lawyer Sue Chrysanthou told the court in her closing submissions.

But Mr Pesutto’s barrister, Matthew Collins, KC, defended Mr Pesutto’s actions as expressions of honest opinion, contextual truth, public interest and qualified privilege.

Dr Collins repeatedly argued Mrs Deeming’s reputation had not been damaged by anything his client had said or done.

John Pesutto’s lawyers defended his actions as expressions of honest opinion, contextual truth, public interest and qualified privilege. Picture: Diego Fedele

He said witnesses called to give evidence about Mrs Deeming’s reputation “agreed that Mrs Deeming’s reputation had not suffered in the circles in which she moved”.

“In fact it was enhanced,” Dr Collins said.

He said no media reported Mr Pesutto’s publications or comments as him implying Mrs Deeming was a Nazi, so it would be “unusual” for the court to find it carried that meaning when “in the actual world nobody did”.

“It’s about her association with the people who hold these views,” he said.

Dr Collins said Mrs Deeming had helped organise and attend the rally alongside controversial key speaker British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull.

He said she had already been tarred with the Nazi brush in the days before Mr Pesutto said anything.

“This was already being said over and over again,” he said.

“That’s not Mr Pesutto’s fault. There were also calls for Mr Pesutto to take action.”

Dr Collins told Justice David O’Callaghan he got to see Mr Pesutto in the witness box for four days, and that he “was at all times, a courteous and honest witness”.

But Justice O’Callaghan criticised Mr Pesutto’s inability to provide particular examples during “his evidence about Mrs Deeming having a bad reputation for giving succour to hatred”, saying it “struck me as unsatisfactory”.

He was also critical of Mr Pesutto’s concealment of the secret recording of the meeting between Mrs Deeming and the party leaders the day after the Let Women Speak rally in March last year.

“The recording demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt, the recollection of every person at that meeting … was wrong,” he said.

It comes as Mr Pesutto denied using Mrs Deeming’s involvement in the rally as a false pretext to get rid of her as she was impeding his plans to become premier.

Sue Chrysanthou, SC, for Mrs Deeming, earlier told the court Mr Pesutto was a “liar” whose move to expel the MP was “just part of a scheme to get rid of someone who was interfering with his plans”.

“He wants to be the premier. He calls himself the alternative premier,” Ms Chrysanthou said.

“Mrs Deeming was expelled because Mr Pesutto found it annoying to have to answer press questions about her whenever she made a statement about sex-based rights.

“He uses this Nazi appearance on the steps of parliament as a pretext to just get rid of her.”

But Dr Collins, on behalf of his client, denied this, saying he did what any leader would do, and distanced themselves from such a “vile” association.

“He had to get ahead of this. He had to cauterise the damage that had been done,” Mr Collins said.

Originally published as John Pesutto’s lawyers argue Moira Deeming’s reputation was ‘enhanced’ after-party expulsion