By Rachel Eddie and Annika Smethurst
State Opposition Leader John Pesutto says he shared aspects of his attempts to stop a defamation threat from MP Moira Deeming ending up in court in a bid to reassure former premier Jeff Kennett and some Liberal MPs that he was not acting unreasonably.
In a second day of cross-examination in the Federal Court on Wednesday, Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, pressed Pesutto on whether he was behind media reporting about his negotiations with Deeming, which ultimately collapsed.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto and wife Betty arriving at the Federal Court on Wednesday.Credit: Eddie Jim
Pesutto said he had not shared details of the negotiations with the media but conceded he felt he needed to address a narrative that he wasn’t doing his best to settle the case.
He said he shared information with Kennett – who has contributed to Pesutto’s legal fees – and other Liberal figures because he had to maintain the confidence of the party.
“I felt it was necessary, given my role … This is a very unusual situation,” Pesutto told the court on day eight of Deeming’s defamation case against him.
“What was being briefed was not actually fair or right.”
Ousted Liberal Moira Deeming and barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, on Wednesday.Credit: Eddie Jim
Pesutto, who has repeatedly said he exhausted every effort to settle, told the court it wasn’t his aim for the details to reach the media but he had not directed Kennett to keep them confidential.
“I can’t tell Mr Kennett what he can and cannot do,” the state Liberal leader said.
Pesutto also conceded on Wednesday that he had drafted a statement on a possible resignation from the Liberal party room for Deeming the day after she attended the March 2023 Let Women Speak rally – hours before she was brought in to explain her actions to the leadership team.
The draft statement said Deeming had denounced Nazism and had nothing to do with masked men in black who performed a salute at the rally but was nonetheless resigning from the Liberal party room.
Pesutto told the court the statement was just a “hypothetical” of what an “ideal outcome could be”.
Chrysanthou also questioned him on whether he had leaked a dossier created to justify Deeming’s expulsion to Liberal stalwart Michael Kroger, a former state party president, so he could speak to it on Sky News in March last year.
Pesutto said he couldn’t recall doing so but couldn’t rule out someone from his office providing it.
Chrysanthou asked Pesutto if he considered Kroger a friend.
Credit: Matt Golding
“We’re not besties, your honour,” Pesutto told the court. But he agreed they had known each other for years, even if they ran “in different lanes”.
The Federal Court has heard Deeming helped organise the rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament on March 18, 2023. Neo-Nazis were among several groups of protesters that arrived that day.
Pesutto moved to expel Deeming after the rally, but she was suspended for nine months in a last-minute compromise. She was expelled weeks later, after threatening to bring in lawyers and is now an independent MP.
Deeming alleges Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser, which he rejects.
Pesutto’s cross-examination will continue on Thursday.
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