John Pesutto’s unwinnable position: Save himself, or save his job

When John Pesutto realised there was a narrative building within the Liberal Party that he wasn’t negotiating in good faith with Moira Deeming, he decided to set the record straight.

He provided details of the mediation attempts to senior Liberal figures, including former premier Jeff Kennett, in the hope it would reassure them he was doing everything he could to stop the messy saga reaching court.

To borrow a phrase from Pesutto’s barrister, Dr Matthew Collins, KC: “Politics is a brutal game.”

Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto on Thursday.Credit: AAP

Over three days of cross-examination in the Federal Court defamation case, Pesutto – the Victorian opposition leader – hasn’t always answered like a man who is trying to win a high-stakes and potentially costly court case.

Sue Chrysanthou, SC, who is representing ousted Liberal Moira Deeming, accused him of giving speeches in his political interest instead of answering her questions.

Observing Pesutto over three days, his responses – and demeanour – have shifted between his two realities. The first as a father of three from Hawthorn fighting a costly civil suit, and the second as a senior politician trying to hang on to his job.

Away from of the courtroom, the Victorian Liberal Party remains split about what the parliamentary team will look like on October 15 when its 30 MPs will meet on Spring Street for their regular sitting-week meeting.

By that time, about a quarter of Liberal MPs will have faced cross-examination and many of those remaining will have had their text messages, private comments and opinions aired in courtroom 6K.

Pesutto has repeatedly tried to explain the realities of his position to Justice David O’Callaghan, whose decision will have more of a sway on the Liberal leader’s future than any of his colleagues’.

Moira Deeming.Credit: Simon Schluter

Admitting he had shared the mediation details to maintain the confidence of his colleagues, Pesutto told the court: “I felt it was necessary, given my role”.

Pesutto has provided a similar justification for his decision to urgently respond to Deeming’s attendance at the Let Women Speak Rally in March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazi’s last year.

He insists he was acting to protect the broader opposition. He couldn’t, as the “alternative premier”, be forever responding to questions from journalists about her views and associates.

“It would derail what we were trying to achieve.”

The court has heard that his response – to push for Deeming’s expulsion – ultimately split the party and resulted in some of his own MPs, including former treasurer Kim Wells, giving damaging evidence against him.

“If this was his own decision, it showed a dreadful lack of political judgment,” Wells said in his affidavit.

Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick, left, and Opposition Leader John Pesutto.Credit: The Age

Deeming has told the court she helped organise the rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament and alleges Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser, which he rejects.

The court heard Pesutto was already considering whether to expel Deeming from his party room by the evening after the rally, egged on by former MP Louise Staley and former leader Matthew Guy, who offered to move the motion against her.

The next day, Pesutto began drafting a statement on a possible resignation for the Upper House MP, before the leadership team hauled her into a meeting and eventually told her they would seek her expulsion.

Pesutto described this as dealing with a “hypothetical”, but it’s the sort of admission that will make his political aspirations to lead the party much more difficult. Liberals, above most things, don’t enjoy being pre-empted or told what to do.

Deeming was suspended for nine months in a last-minute compromise, but was ultimately expelled weeks later after threatening to bring in lawyers.

Early next week, deputy Liberal leader David Southwick, who secretly recorded that 70-minute meeting with Deeming and the leadership team, will face cross-examination.

His actions have also soured the mood among Liberal MPs who have questioned his trustworthiness and whether he can remain in the leadership role.

Pesutto told the court he was surprised, but not shocked, to learn of the audio’s existence after his deputy had kept it from him for about nine months. Pesutto was challenged by Chrysanthou on Southwick’s loyalty, but so far, has refused to waver.

We are about to learn if such loyalty goes both ways.

The court is also yet to hear from upper house leader Georgie Crozier or her former deputy Dr Matthew Bach.

Few of those who have provided evidence in the past nine days have left unscathed.

That includes Eastern Victoria MP Renee Heath, who admitted she shared draft minutes from the meeting in which Deeming was suspended with three MPs against party room rules and her prior insistence to colleagues she had not.

Moira Deeming addresses the Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne on March 18, 2023.Credit: Youtube

The trial has also sought to rake over old ground that the Liberals would rather forget. It’s dredged up Guy’s “lobster with a mobster” dinner and Pesutto’s comments on the so-called African gangs debate from 2018. Pesutto was also challenged on whether the Hamas October 7 attack was a legitimate form of resistance.

At times, it’s been difficult to see how these questions – some historical, others outright hypothetical – relate to the defamation claim, but if Deeming’s aim is to destroy Pesutto’s chance of leading the party to the election, then they are proving effective.

From the start, Pesutto – a moderate – was never going to be embraced by the conservative side of the party, despite, as he told the court, approaching Sky News anchor and Liberal operative Peta Credlin in the early days of his leadership for help setting up his office.

His task has been made even harder with Chrysanthou suggesting that Deeming’s expulsion had little to do with Pesutto protecting the Liberal Party, and was instead a “political move” to rid the party of conservative voices.

“That’s not correct, your honour,” Pesutto replied.

He then tried to make the point that it was not her views, but the manner and frequency in which she expressed them that was a problem.

The court heard that before the rally Deeming had already been hauled into a meeting after her inaugural speech to parliament. Pesutto pointed out he had publicly defended her right to hold her views on sex-based rights after being peppered with questions over whether the Liberal Party was a safe place for LGBTQ members and whether he was a hypocrite for attending Pride events.

“If you’ve got an MP drawing this kind of attention to the party, you’ve got to remember I’m trying to reform the party.”

He has repeatedly told the court his primary motivation was to “save the party”, which has faced repeated electoral wipeout in Victoria.

The electoral reality Pesutto was faced with in March 2023 also goes to the heart of his defence – that the Liberal party room and the Victorian parliament is no normal workplace and this is not an unfair dismissal case.

Collins has contended that Deeming was reckless to the seriousness of what unfolded, celebrating the rally with champagne while other organisers floated conspiracy theories that the neo-Nazis were actually police in disguise.

While the week ended with Pesutto facing the heat of cross-examination, the court also heard Deeming was dropping three of 23 imputations, including one that alleged Pesutto implied she was a white supremacist.

While Pesutto has appeared defensive, Deeming came across as evasive and the court heard she called in defamation lawyers well before she had publicly admitted to doing so.

Defamation trials are notoriously difficult to gauge, and the burden of proof rests with Pesutto’s team to prove he did not defame Deeming.

But it’s possible the case is unwinnable for Pesutto, with no guarantee he will be rewarded by either the Federal Court or a scorched earth Liberal Party.

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