By Rachel Eddie
Opposition Leader John Pesutto’s push to expel Moira Deeming from the Liberal parliamentary team triggered a 72-hour “frenzy”, the Federal Court heard on Friday.
On the fifth day of a high-stakes defamation trial that is exposing hostilities within the party, opposition frontbencher Richard Riordan and Liberal MP Renee Heath faced cross-examination from Pesutto’s legal team.
Shadow minister Richard Riordan outside the Federal Court on Friday.Credit: Jason South
Pesutto, meanwhile, did not look at his MPs as they were questioned.
Riordan told the court he couldn’t recall checking the evidence contained in a dossier against Deeming or specifics about what was said in the 72 hours after the opposition leader publicly announced he was seeking her expulsion because of the “frenzy” of phone calls.
Matthew Collins, KC, for Pesutto, raised the expulsion of Deeming’s predecessor, Bernie Finn, from the party for disobedience in May 2022.
He reminded Riordan that then-opposition leader Matthew Guy made his position that it was time to expel Finn publicly known before it was put to a party room vote.
Moira Deeming outside the Federal Court on Friday.Credit: Jason South
Riordan could not recall the details of this but said that Finn had a long track record.
“The Bernie saga went on for a very long period of time,” Riordan told the court.
During cross-examination on Friday, Heath admitted she shared her draft notes from the March 2023 party room meeting in which Deeming was suspended – against party rules.
Heath, who was secretary at the time, accepted she sent the notes from her parliamentary email to her personal email and then onto Deeming’s personal email, telling the court she didn’t put this in her affidavit because she had forgotten.
Liberal MP Renee Heath arrives at the Federal Court on Friday.Credit: Jason South
The court heard Heath was informed by Deeming’s legal team late last week or early this week that the email to Deeming had been uncovered in discovery. Heath on Friday told the court that she had to correct her affidavit.
When pressed by Collins about whether she was trying to avoid being caught for leaking them, Heath said she could not recall why she sent them via personal accounts.
Heath also admitted she shared the draft notes with Liberal MPs Chris Crewther and Nick McGowan. The notes, a rough transcript of the meeting, were reported in detail in the media.
Heath accepted that one of the three people she shared it with could have been behind the leak.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto and wife Betty arrive at the Federal Court on Thursday.Credit: AAPIMAGE
Heath, who emailed the party room alleging she had been bullied, was demoted as secretary in May last year – the same day Deeming was expelled.
In court this week, Deeming accepted that she had helped organise the Let Women Speak rally for UK activist Kellie-Jay Keen on the steps of the Victorian parliament on March 18, 2023.
Neo-Nazis attended and repeatedly did Nazi salutes. Deeming said she did not see them until they were escorted away by police.
Deeming disputed evidence the neo-Nazis were there to support the cause of the rally and said she was horrified by them.
Pesutto sought her expulsion from the Liberals’ party room in the days after the rally, but she was suspended in a last-minute compromise. She was ultimately expelled in May last year after threatening to bring in lawyers.
Deeming alleges Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser, which he rejects.
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