Ousted Victorian Liberal MP Moira Deeming received voicemail messages from people “looking for a Nazi”, suggesting that she “kill herself” and telling her to “move in with Pauline Hanson” after she attended a rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, the federal court has heard.
Deeming, now an independent MP after her expulsion from the state parliamentary Liberal party, is suing the state opposition leader, John Pesutto, for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at a 2023 “Let Women Speak” rally in Melbourne which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis who repeatedly performed the Hitler salute. Pesutto has rejected the allegation.
Deeming’s lawyer, Barry Dean, on Monday played the federal court several voicemail messages received by his client in the days after the 18 March rally.
One caller told Deeming he was “looking for a Nazi to appear at my event”.
“I heard Moira might be available and not have very much to do. Do you think she’d be a suitable Nazi? I’m not sure if she’s Nazi enough,” the message said.
“I mean, she’s definitely Nazi, but like Nazi, Nazi? I mean, that’s really the question here.”
The message ended with the caller telling Deeming “maybe it would be better” if she “killed herself”.
In a separate message a caller is heard asking: “Is this the recruiting office for the Australian Nazi party?”
Another caller told Deeming that anybody working in her office was “neo-Nazi scum too”.
“They’re on your side. Think about that. They’ve never been on anybody’s side but yours,” the voicemail said.
In a separate voicemail, a male tells Deeming “the far right has no place in Victoria”.
“You’re welcome to leave whenever you want. Go move to Queensland. You can move in with Pauline Hanson,” the voicemail said.
“Not one of you lovely people has condemned the far right because you are the far right. Bunch of clowns.”
Another caller told Deeming she was ensuring the Liberal party would be “irrelevant for years to come”.
The Let Women Speak rally was co-organised by UK activist Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as Posie Parker, as part of her tour of Australia and New Zealand, in which it was claimed that the push for transgender women’s rights was silencing and discriminating against women.
The court was previously shown a dossier, including links to interviews Keen had done, compiled by Pesutto’s office, which was sent to MPs after the rally to support the state Liberal leader’s bid to oust Deeming from the parliamentary party.
Deeming previously told the court the men who disrupted the event were not invited and said she only became aware the Nazi salute had been performed when the group was escorted out by police.
Pesutto’s lawyer, Matthew Collins KC, previously showed the court a statement by neo-Nazi figure Thomas Sewell, who claimed the group acted as a “vanguard” for the rally.
Deeming was initially suspended from the party’s parliamentary team in the days after the rally before later being expelled.
Closing submissions in the defamation case will be heard later this month.
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org.
