“Each of the statements in question were made by Mr Pesutto,not our client,” Arnold Bloch Leibler,acting for Southwick,wrote in a January letter – obtained byThe Age – in response to a concerns notice from Deeming.
Deputy Liberal leader David Southwick in parliament on Tuesday.Chris Hopkins
The Liberal leadership team is grappling with defamation claims on multiple fronts followingthat was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis and led to Deeming being suspended from the party room.
One Liberal source,speaking on condition of anonymity to be frank about the defamation claims and internal matters,characterised Southwick’s response as throwing Pesutto under the bus.
But Southwick,an ally of Pesutto,said the pair were focused on the real issues affecting Victorians.
“This matter is with my lawyers and I will not be commenting further,” Southwick said in a statement on Tuesday.
Opposition Leader John Pesutto in parliament on Tuesday.Chris Hopkins
“John,I and the Liberal team are focused on the real issues impacting Victorians as we head towards another horror Labor budget of new taxes and service cuts in just a few weeks’ time.”
Pesutto repudiated on Tuesday rumblings about his leadership and said he would defend three possible Federal Court actions against him after British anti-trans rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull lodged a defamation suit late on Monday.
“I’ll be vigorously contesting that proceeding and any other proceeding,” Pesutto said.
Melbourne woman Angie Jones is also expected to file a defamation suit this week,and separate action launched by Deeming is to go to trial in September.
John Pesutto and his then leadership team,including David Southwick (left),after Moira Deeming was suspended from the party in March last year.Darrian Traynor
All three women helped organise the Let Women Speak rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament a year ago.
Deeming alleges Pesutto painted her as a Nazi sympathiser in the aftermath,which he disputes. Keen-Minshull and Jones also allege they were defamed as being associated with far-right extremists,which they reject.
Keen-Minshull’s statement of claim seeks aggravated damages and alleges Pesutto defamed her to justify moves against Deeming.
Deeming also sent a legal warning to Southwick last year after she was removed from the parliamentary Liberal Party in a protracted fallout from the rally.
The letter from Arnold Bloch Leibler partner Teresa Ward said Southwick would seek to summarily dismiss Deeming’s claim if she commenced court proceedings.
“Your client cannot discharge her obligations under the Act to issue a proper concerns notice by simply asserting,without any basis or detail,that our client participated in and/or approved of and/or authorised publications or statements made by Mr Pesutto or actions taken by him,” Ward’s letter said.
Southwick called Deeming on the afternoon of the Let Women Speak rally to ask for an explanation,lawyers for Pesutto have previously said in court documents,and was one of four party leaders present in a two-hour meeting with Deeming a day later.
She was told she would face an expulsion motion,which Southwick was a signatory to.
Southwick’s lawyer wrote that the expulsion motion was only intended for the parliamentary party and that it invited a response from Deeming and party room debate. A reasonable reader would not think the letter suggested Deeming was associated with neo-Nazi activists,the deputy leader’s lawyer said.
Deeming was from the parliamentary party room for nine months in a last-minute compromise,but was in a separate motion when she threatened to bring in lawyers to resolve the dispute.
She remains a crossbench MP in the upper house.
Pesutto repeated on Tuesday that his leadership was safe and complained he did not think the Allan government had to endure the same scrutiny from the media as the Coalition.
“We just want fair treatment in the media,” he said. “I’m just telling you how we feel. We feel like we are treated less favourably than the government.”
He had declared on Monday that he would not be “sued out of a job” when he revealed the full list of donors who had made contributions to his legal defence up to January 31.
Labor said Pesutto should disclose the value of each of the donations,which he is not required to do. Pesutto had already gone beyond requirements by naming all 12 people and entities,even those who contributed less than the $600 disclosure threshold.
Deeming declined to comment when contacted on Tuesday.
