Moira Deeming Lodges Defamation Case Against Liberal Leader John Pesutto
Image: Liberal MP Moira Deeming (right) with Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto.
Expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming has sued Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto, accusing her former leader of defaming her. Deeming lodged the defamation case in the Federal Court, reported ABC.
Deeming, who has a history of targeting the trans community, was elected to the Victorian Parliament in December 2022. In May 2023, she was expelled from the Victorian Liberal Party after she participated in a rally in Melbourne organised by British anti-trans campaigner Kellie Jay Keen that was attended by neo-Nazis in March 2023.
“I did not know those neo-Nazis and did not arrange for them to gatecrash our event, Deeming said in a media statement last month.
Deeming Claims She Was Accused Of being A Nazi Sympathiser
She claimed she was “called into a meeting and informed by the Liberal Party leadership that if I refused to denounce the ‘Let Women Speak’ rally and it’s organisers as being extremists and Nazi’s/Nazi associates, they’d move a motion to expel me from the parliamentary team. Or, I was told, I could ‘just resign and make it easier on everyone’. I declined.”
Deeming claimed Pesutto accused her “of being a knowing associate of Neo-Nazi sympathisers and extremists, and therefore deserving of expulsion from the Parliamentary Liberal Party.”
Pesutto denied that he had called Deeming a Nazi sympathiser.
Mediation Fails
“These unjustifiable and defamatory actions have caused me, my husband and our four children, enormous harm, personally, financially and reputationally,” said Deeming, and claimed that she tried to avoid legal action against Pesutto.
“All I have ever wanted from Mr Pesutto was a full and official exoneration so that my children don’t have to live under this ‘Nazi bigot’ slur, restoration of my financial position, and my rightful return to the Party Room as an elected Liberal MP.” Deeming revealed that attempts at mediation failed and she was left with no option but to lodge a defamation case against the Liberal leader.
