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'.
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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.