The defamation case brought by Victorian politician Moira Deeming against Victoria Liberal leader John Pesutto will be handed down on Thursday morning.
Justice O’Callaghan is expected to deliver his judgement in a Melbourne Court at 7.15am (WA time) with his comments on the case streamed live via the court’s YouTube channel.
The case centres around comments made by the Liberal leader around his push to remove Deeming from the parliamentary Liberal Party. Deeming alleges that comments made by the Liberal leader framed her as a Nazi, an accusation he rejects.
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 argues 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.
