‘Terrify them’: Text trove reveals Credlin’s secret advice to Deeming

A trove of text messages and emails from ousted Liberal Moira Deeming shows she sought advice from political commentator and Liberal operative Peta Credlin on how to defeat a bid by Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto to boot her from the party room.

Thirty pages of screenshots of texts between the pair reveal Sky News anchor Credlin offered her views on how to influence a party room vote, which MPs were “soft” and could be turned, and how to media manage the saga that began 18 months ago.

Deeming helped organise the Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis on the steps of the Victorian parliament in March last year.

Pesutto threatened to expel Deeming from the parliamentary Liberal Party in the days after. She was suspended instead for nine months in a last-minute compromise, but was ultimately expelled in May last year after threatening to bring in lawyers.

Separately, Federal Court documents released late on Friday also showed federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, in the lead-up to the byelection in the federal seat of Aston, had asked Pesutto to stop doing media on the Deeming saga.

“I’ve had a request from Peter Dutton that we don’t do any more media on Moira,” Pesutto said in a text message contained in a court document.

They also embroil Tony Abbott, who Credlin worked for during his time as opposition leader and prime minister, in the saga.

Months of messages show Deeming speaking with press gallery journalists from The Age, Herald Sun, the ABC, Guardian Australia and The Australian, as well as UK anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull.

Deeming is suing Pesutto for defamation, and the high-stakes three-week trial begins on Monday. Deeming will be the first to give evidence and face cross-examination.

Screenshots of text messages show Credlin promised a “very friendly interview” and offered Deeming the opportunity to workshop questions.

Credlin said she wanted to avoid damaging the Liberal Party’s chances in Aston, which the party ultimately lost in April last year, and that they could “craft it carefully”.

“I am not interested in damaging our chances in Aston as it would damage Dutton and he’s a mate of mine,” Credlin said in a March 2023 text message to Deeming.

“We will work [interview] up question by question. We need you to survive this. You will lead the party one day.”

Credlin said she was happy to look at any statements and correspondence for Deeming before she sent them out.

On March 27, 2023, the day Deeming was suspended from the party room, she informed Credlin she was “moving to defamation”.

Deeming has always publicly maintained she only turned to defamation once she was expelled from the party room, in May last year.

In the days before her expulsion, Deeming wrote a letter to the Liberal party room at 3.28pm telling them she would mount a legal challenge to her suspension, and forwarded it to Credlin one minute later.

When Pesutto had not acquiesced by her deadline the following day, Credlin texted Deeming on May 4, 2023: “My husband [former Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane] is very political … he says do not pull trigger on any legal action. Makes it hard for colleagues to support you and it could be grounds [to] expel you. Just threaten it and sit on it is my view.”

She advised Deeming to inform the state party president that she had not launched legal proceedings and that her priority remained on getting what was agreed.

“Suing the party is what they will try [and] expel you over and that’s why you have to avoid formally launching anything,” Credlin said.

Deeming, who said she was never going to sue the party, replied: “If I’m not going to sue then I need to make a statement that saves face & quickly. [Former prime minister Tony] Abbott just told me not to sue. Everything is in motion. I don’t know how to media manage it.”

She was expelled from the party room days later.

Credlin repeatedly sympathises with Deeming, telling her to keep her “chin up” and referring to her as a “superstar”.

Credlin said MPs moving against her were “terrified”, that their treatment of her was bullying in the extreme, and that they looked “desperate”.

After the defamation action was launched, Deeming sent Credlin a text message in November discussing the chances of the case getting to court.

“Please send it back via Tony that my offer is my offer. JP could get it done and this whole issue would be over for a new year.”

Deeming says she wants the “strongest of msgs [sic] to go back to him so he doesn’t hold out even a sliver of hope that I’ll fold because I don’t want to hear from him unless he’s signing or I’ll see him in court”.

Deeming alleges Pesutto defamed her as a Nazi sympathiser, which Pesutto rejects.

The opposition leader settled separate defamation action launched against him by activists Keen-Minshull and Angela Jones, who played leading roles in the rally.

Earlier this month, the defamation case Liberal senator Linda Reynolds launched against former staffer Brittany Higgins heard Credlin finessed one of Higgins’ powerful public addresses.

Following that revelation, Credlin earlier this month said: “I have never said anything privately to Moira Deeming that I haven’t said publicly on my program or in print.

“I have tried to urge John Pesutto to settle this case and avoid damaging the Liberal Party any further, but he’s obstinate as well as wrong because all Moira did was defend the rights of women and girls to spaces of our own. And who can’t support that?”

Deeming and Credlin have been contacted for comment.

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