Friends of the former Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto have launched an online fundraiser in a bid to help him “avoid the possibility of bankruptcy” after he was ordered to pay more than $2.3m in costs following his loss in a defamation case brought by the Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
The federal court registrar Alison Legge handed down the decision during a short hearing on Friday in which she ordered Pesutto pay $2,308,873.11 in legal costs.