Former MP Moira Deeming sues VIC Opposition Leader John Pesutto

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Former Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming has begun her defamation case against state Opposition Leader John Pesutto, by accusing her former boss of 'tarring her with the Nazi brush'.

Transcript

00:00Well, it all started back in March 2023 when a self-described women's rights activist Kelly

00:08J Keane, she's from the UK, she travelled to Australia and New Zealand to give a number

00:14of speeches at certain events around Australia and New Zealand.

00:18When she came to Victoria, the then Liberal MP Maura Deeming joined her on the steps of

00:23parliament and a lot of the discussion at that particular event was around women's rights

00:30and I guess questioning around the advancement of transgender rights.

00:34Now transgender activists say this represents an erosion of their rights but we'll get to

00:40that in a little bit.

00:41What's significant about that particular event in March was that it was gate crashed by neo-Nazis,

00:47some giving the Heil salute, the Nazi salute.

00:52Now in the ensuing hours and the ensuing days of that particular event, the opposition leader

00:58John Persuto moved to remove her, expel her from the Liberal Party.

01:05Now initially he was unsuccessful, he managed to get a nine month suspension but once Maura

01:11Deeming threatened to bring in lawyers, he was then successful in expelling her from

01:15the Liberal Party and she now sits on the crossbench.

01:18It was in December of last year where Ms Deeming said that she would be taking Mr Persuto to

01:24court saying that he had implied that she had Nazi or neo-Nazi associations which she

01:32has denied.

01:33Her barrister, respected defamation barrister Sue Cresantho SC told the court that as you

01:39mentioned she's been tarred with the Nazi brush by Mr Persuto and that he had led a

01:45campaign of destruction around her reputation saying that until recently Ms Deeming was

01:52a respected up and coming Liberal parliamentarian and that had all been destroyed by Mr Persuto's

01:59implications that she had neo-Nazi associations.

02:03She said that if Mr Persuto had done any research she'd find that the group that had

02:08organised that particular event on the steps of parliament had disavowed Nazi sympathisers

02:14and white supremacists and that they had no association with the neo-Nazi movement.

02:20She also said that on several occasions Ms Deeming had expressed to her leader her horror

02:26that she saw a gentleman perform a Nazi salute, well gentleman's putting it pretty kindly

02:32but she saw someone perform a Nazi salute.

02:36She said she was also very concerned and very disturbed by the behaviour there and really

02:41condemned the behaviour of the neo-Nazis who gate crashed that rally and completely disassociated

02:48herself from the people that were there.

02:51So she's saying that the fact that John Persuto then went and did a number of interviews suggesting

02:57that she had associations or that the organisers had associations with neo-Nazi groups was

03:02completely erroneous and wrong and the court case continues.

03:06We've also heard that there was a meeting hours after that particular event where leaders

03:13of the Liberal Party went through with Ms Deeming about why she was at that particular

03:18event, what happened, what association she had with Nazis and white supremacists.

03:23Sue Crisanto has flagged that she will play that in court very soon so we look forward

03:28to hearing that.

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