Face of the Day

Victoria’s opposition leader, John Pesutto, defamed his fellow Liberal MP Moira Deeming in comments made after neo-Nazis gatecrashed a rally she helped organise, a federal court has found.

Deeming sued Pesutto for comments made in a media release, a press conference and interviews in the days after the Let Women Speak rally on 18 March 2023, in which she argued that the Liberal leader falsely portrayed her as a Nazi sympathiser.

Pesutto rejected the allegation.

Justice David O’Callaghan handed down his judgment in the long-running case in the federal court on Thursday and ordered Pesutto to pay Deeming $300,000 in damages.

O’Callaghan found that the Liberal leader had defamed Deeming in the four publications, as well as a dossier he created to justify her expulsion from the party room.

He said the media release conveyed that Deeming was “unfit to belong to the Victorian parliamentary Liberal party because she knowingly associates with neo-Nazis”, while an 3AW interview conveyed she “associates with Nazis”.

An ABC radio interview, meanwhile, conveyed she “knowingly associates or sympathises with neo-Nazis and white supremacists” while his press conference the day after the rally conveyed she worked with the rally organiser, Kellie Jay Keen, and others to “promote their odious Nazi agenda and their white supremacist and ethno-facist views”, O’Callaghan found.

The expulsion motion and dossier conveyed she was likely to “bring discredit on the Victorian parliament … by organising, promoting and attending” the Let Women Speak rally, he said.

The trial has deepened a rift between the Victorian Liberal party’s conservative and moderate factions – and the result will likely lead to speculation of a leadership challenge – as text messages, emails and secret recordings were played in court.

Deeming was in court for the judgment, accompanied by her husband, Andrew. On her way out she told reporters she was “so delighted” and “very grateful to the court”.

The Guardian