A former Victorian Liberal MP who is now working in the UK must return to Australia to give evidence at a defamation trial brought against the state's opposition leader.
Independent MP Moira Deeming launched Federal Court action against John Pesutto in 2023 over allegations he publicly accused her of being a Nazi sympathiser and used the claim to bully and threaten her with expulsion.
Ms Deeming was expelled from the Liberal Party after taking part in the Let Women Speak rally, which was gatecrashed by masked men performing Nazi salutes in March 2023.
Mr Pesutto submitted an application to the Federal Court on August 9 seeking permission to allow Matt Bach to give testimony by audio-visual link from London.
But Federal Court Justice David O'Callaghan opposed the application in his judgment on Thursday.
Dr Bach was deputy leader of the opposition in the upper house at the time and at a meeting involving the party's leadership team the day after the rally.
He abruptly left politics at the end of 2023 to return to his career in education, taking up a role as assistant headmaster at Brighton College in southern England.
Being required to attend in-person will cause significant inconvenience to Dr Bach, his employer, and his family, the court was told.
As a father to two children, Dr Bach said his wife would have to take time off from work, and an absence from his school will have a "significant deleterious impact" on the 80 students he teaches.
Dr Bach is also scheduled for a 10-day marketing work trip to China in mid-September.
The former Liberal MP would have known there was a likelihood of him attending the September trial in person when he voluntarily gave an affidavit in May while he was already working at the school, Ms Deeming's barrister Sue Chrysanthou argued.
She said his employer could have sent someone else to China had Dr Bach told his employer in May that he was going to have to come to Melbourne to give evidence.
Justice O'Callaghan accepted Dr Bach's extended absence will likely cause some disruption to his pupils, and will inconvenience his wife and small children.
"But in the scheme of things, I do not give those matters significant weight," he said.
"Dr Bach must have known in May when he swore his first affidavit that there was a likelihood that he would have to attend the trial in September in person, that certain inconvenience would be caused to his students and family as a result, and that he would need to make arrangements accordingly."
Mediation between Mr Pesutto and Ms Deeming broke down in 2023 over the former Liberal MP's demand to return to the party room without conditions.
Mr Pesutto maintains he never accused the now-independent MP of being a Nazi or having Nazi sympathies.
He has already reached settlements with rally speaker Kellie-Jay Keen and organiser Angela Jones, issuing both women a public apology.
The defamation trial is set to begin on September 16 and is listed to run for 15 days.
