By The Guardian (World News) | Created at 2024-10-23 03:25:16 | Updated at 2024-10-23 05:38:21
2 hours ago
The Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, used the arrival of neo-Nazis at a rally Moira Deeming helped organise as an excuse to “get rid of her” from the Liberal party room, defaming her in the process, the ousted MP’s lawyer has argued.
Deeming, who now sits on the crossbench after her expulsion from the state parliamentary party, is suing Pesutto for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally held on 18 March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. The state Liberal leader has denied the claim.
In her closing arguments, Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, asserted that Pesutto’s push to expel her from the party had “nothing to do” with the rally.
“The decision to expel was so irrational and clearly not based on the reasons he put forward to the press,” Chrysanthou told the federal court in Melbourne.
“Mrs Deeming was expelled because Mr Pesutto found it annoying to have to answer press questions about her whenever she made a statement about sex-based rights.”
Chrysanthou said Pesutto had earlier told the court he lost his seat of Hawthorn at the 2018 election due to the Liberals’ focus on “non-mainstream issues”, such as “the ones Mrs Deeming talks about”.
After reclaiming his seat in the 2022 election and becoming party leader, she argued Pesutto aimed to avoid a similar situation in the upcoming 2026 election.
Chrysanthou argued that although Pesutto may have believed Deeming’s advocacy provided a valid reason for her expulsion, many within the Liberal party shared her views.
This, she argued, led Pesutto to create a “false narrative” with the help of his chief of staff, suggesting that Deeming “associates with Nazis”.
“That’s our case theory about what happened,” Chrysanthou said.
“He uses this Nazi appearance on the steps of parliament as a pretext to just get rid of her.”
Pesutto’s lawyer, Matthew Collins KC, emphatically rejected this, describing the theory as a “conspiracy” that was “just wrong”.
“None of that was put to Mr Pesutto and none of that was put to the leadership team, who are also impugned by this theory,” he said. “It’s a submission that should just not be made … or pursued.”
Deeming alleges that Pesutto defamed her in four publications after the rally: a media release, interviews on ABC News Breakfast and 3AW Radio, a press conference, and a dossier justifying her expulsion.
Pesutto’s legal team have relied on the legal defences of claims of honest opinion, contextual truth, public interest and qualified privilege.
But Chrysanthou argued Pesutto characterised his opinion as “fact” and did not take reasonable care before publishing, meaning he was not protected from the defences.
On Tuesday, Chrysanthou went through the two media interviews in forensic detail, arguing it was clear through Pesutto’s “tone”, “demeanour” and “words” that he was “going into bat” for himself against Deeming.
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Referring to the media release, she said Pesutto made a “deliberate decision” to exclude from a sentence from the draft, which referred to Nazi’s “gatecrashing” Deeming’s event.
She argued that the release, sent to about 750 journalists, could lead an ordinary reader to think Deeming “organised, attended and spoke at a Nazi rally”.
Chrysanthou also accused Pesutto of providing “dishonest evidence” about releasing the dossier, because he believed the Age already had already obtained a copy and it was in the public interest.
“He truly believed that it was a matter of political expediency – his own political expediency – to publish this material,” she said.
“His credibility as a politician, his personal interests as a politician are not in the public interest.”
She claimed he did not disclose that a meeting was secretly recorded by the deputy Liberal leader, David Southwick, due to a “consciousness of guilt”.
Beginning his closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon, Collins told the court there should no dispute that the neo-Nazis were there to “support” the headline speaker of the rally, the UK gender critical activist Kellie-Jay Keen.
He said the rally was “anti-trans”, given Keen began by “provoking” the counter-protest.
“The rally was an anti-trans rally, all of the media reported it that way and they were right,” Collins said.
His closing arguments are expected to conclude on Thursday, with Justice David O’Callaghan likely to deliver his findings in December.
