Victorian politician Moira Deeming has won her defamation action against Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto with the judge awarding her $300,000 in damages.
In a brief delivery of his judgement Judge David O’Callaghan said he found that John Pesutto has defamed the first term politician in a series of interviews he gave in the days following Deeming’s appearance Kellie-Jay Keen’s Let Women Speak even in Melbourne.
The judge found that Pesutto defamed Deeming on multiple occasions, including in a media release where he said she was unfit to belong in the Victoria parliamentary Liberal party because she knowingly associates with neo Nazis.
Further instances of defamatory comments occurred during an interview with radio station 3AW and an interview with the ABC, and in a press conference given by the Liberal leader and in an associated dossier of materials he released.
The judge knocked back all of the defences put forward by Pesutto’s legal team.
Judge O’Callaghan said that the defence of contextual truth did not arise, while Pesutto failed to make out the defences of public interest, honest opinion and common law qualified privilege.
Pesutto moved to have Deeming excluded from the parliamentary Liberal party after she attended a Let Women Speak event organised by British provocateur Kellie-Jay Keen in March 2023.
Keen’s tour around Australia drew large groups of counter-protesters and at the Melbourne event a neo-Nazi group appeared adjacent to where the Let Women Speak event was taking place on the stairs of the parliament house.
Pesutto’s first attempt at removing Deeming from the party saw her suspended from the party room for nine months, but after she threatened legal action, her colleagues voted to remove her permanently from the parliamentary party.
Since then, she has remained a member of the wider Liberal party, while sitting on the crossbench in the Victorian parliament.
Over four weeks the court heard testimony from politicians, party officials, and expert witnesses. The case also brought to light secret recordings made of key meetings between the concerned parties.
Deeming’s claim argued that the Liberal leader’s actions led to damage to her reputation, vandalism of her electoral office, retraction of official MP invitations from community functions, social media reactions, threats, jibes, hatred, harassment, abuse, contempt and ridicule through emails, letters and voicemails to Deeming and on social media.
Pesutto previously settled defamation claims and issued apologies to the rally’s main speaker, British provocateur Kellie-Jay Keen, and organiser Angela Jones.
Earlier this week it was revealed that Pesutto had secretly paid $50,000 to cover legal costs for Keen and Jones, details which were not included in the deeds of settlement relating to their claims.
