The influential Liberal figure Michael Kroger claimed Moira Deeming had said “more crazy stuff over the years” as he urged the Victorian opposition leader, John Pesutto, to build a stronger case for her ousting from the party room, a court has heard.
Deeming, now an independent MP after her expulsion, is suing Pesutto for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she spoke at the Let Women Speak rally held on 18 March 2023 that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. Pesutto has rejected the allegation.
In text messages shown to the federal court on Monday, Kroger – a Sky News regular – expressed concern about a dossier that the opposition leader had created to support her expulsion.
“John, between us you need to strengthen the case against her,” Kroger, a former Victorian Liberal party president whose conservative faction opposed Deeming’s 2022 preselection, wrote to Pesutto on 20 March 2023.
Kroger had also suggested Pesutto speak to Ian Quick, a member of the Liberal party’s powerful administrative committee, who he said knew “people who can find anything on the internet even long deleted stuff”, the court heard.
“You need to be an expert to find deleted stuff. Moira will herself also have said even more crazy stuff over the years,” Kroger wrote.
Pesutto replied: “Agree. We are working on building further material in. Thanks again for your support on this.”
The evidence of Kroger’s intervention came after the court last week heard the Sky News host Peta Credlin was also in communication with both MPs.
After helping Pesutto set up his office, Credlin – the former chief of staff to Tony Abbott – began advising Deeming on how to deal with members of the party room and the media. Documents published by the court on Monday included Credlin’s edits to a letter drafted by Deeming, which was then sent on to Liberal MPs.
Deeming’s lawyers have alleged the dossier used by Pesutto formed part of the defamatory material against her, with her barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, earlier describing it as “no better than a project prepared by an eight-year-old”.
In his fourth day of cross-examination, Pesutto was also shown a document prepared by his deputy chief of staff, which detailed how MPs might vote on the expulsion.
According to the annotated spreadsheet, Kroger was suggested as being able to lobby the MPs Brad Rowswell and Jess Wilson.
A note next to the upper house MP Trung Luu’s name stated: “Pitch – #1 candidate in the West.”
Chrysanthou put to Pesutto he had instructed his staff to “make offers” to MPs, including the top spot on the ballot to Luu, “to try to have the motion come out in your favour”. Pesutto denied this.
“I certainly didn’t ask them,” Pesutto said. “It was obvious that Mr Luu would become a prime candidate for number one if was Mrs Deeming was not a member of the parliamentary Liberal party.”
A note next to the name of the former opposition leader Michael O’Brien read: “Pitch – Coalition threat might get him over the line.”
Chrysanthou suggested Pesutto had “threatened” O’Brien with the dissolution of the Coalition agreement.
“That’s absurd … these are ideas of bubbling up from staff, they’re not things I put down in the document,” Pesutto replied.
“But the concern there was that Michael certainly, according to this document, would be concerned if Mrs Deeming remained in the parliamentary party, whether that might precipitate the dissolution of the Coalition agreement.”
The case continues.
