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Exiled Victorian MP Moira Deeming will push ahead with legal action against Opposition Leader John Pesutto after mediation talks broke down on the weekend.
Deeming, who was dumped from the parliamentary Liberal Party in May following a 19-11 vote from her colleagues, released a statement on Monday, saying she has been “left with no option” but to lodge a defamation case against Pesutto in court.
Moira Deeming now is a crossbench MP after being ejected from the parliamentary party.Credit: Joe Armao
“I made an offer on Wednesday and met with Mr Pesutto and Victorian Liberal Party State President, Mr Phil Davies yesterday [Sunday] afternoon. Unfortunately, the mediation failed,” Deeming said.
“It is therefore with great regret as a current Liberal Party member that [I] am now left with no option but to lodge my defamation case against Mr Pesutto in court.”
On her website, Deeming is asking for donations from supporters “to provide a gift to her family”, not as a donation to a political campaign.
In March, Pesutto succeeded in suspending the first-term MP from the Liberal party room after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally, which was organised by British anti-trans rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and gate-crashed by neo-Nazis.
Moira Deeming (left) and Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull at the Let Women Speak rally in March.Credit: Twitter
Pesutto claimed Deeming had an association with organisers and speakers “who have shared platforms with viewpoints with people who promote Nazi views or sympathies”. He also criticised the Upper House MP for staying at the rally “when the Nazis arrived” and celebrating with organisers, instead of dissociating from them.
Pesutto then brought the motion to remove Deeming from the parliamentary team for “organising, promoting and attending” the Let Women Speak protest, but the party room agreed to a compromise deal that saw her suspended for nine months, costing her the position of upper house whip and the $20,000 pay rise that went with it.
Weeks later, the Western Metropolitan Region MP was expelled from the party room after she told the leadership team she intended to sue for defamation and launch legal proceedings to challenge her nine-month suspension.
Following her expulsion, she has issued two defamation concerns notices that allege Pesutto compared her to a Nazi sympathiser, a claim he rejects.
In a statement released on Monday, Deeming said the rally was attended by “ordinary people from across the political spectrum” and “was also gate-crashed by groups of masked neo-Nazi sympathisers and radical activists”.
“I did not know those neo-Nazis and did not arrange for them to gatecrash our event,” she said.
“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 said.
The Age has contacted the opposition leader’s office seeking a response.
In order for Deeming to return to the parliamentary team, Pesutto would need to present another motion to Liberal MPs, which would need the support of the majority of the party room.
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