Ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming was “distraught” after her young children began saying “my mum’s a Nazi” amid controversy over a rally she attended, according to an affidavit made public by the federal court.
Deeming is suing the state Liberal leader, John Pesutto, for allegedly falsely portraying her as a Nazi sympathiser after she helped organise and spoke at the “Let Women Speak” rally on 18 March 2023 which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis. She was expelled from the party less than two months later after initially being suspended.
On Wednesday evening the federal court uploaded a tranche of files from the defamation case, including sworn statements and audio recordings received as evidence.
Twelve affidavits submitted by Deeming’s legal team were made public, including those of Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Liberal senator Sarah Henderson and NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick.
In his statement, Mundine – who described the Victorian MP and her husband Andrew Deeming as “close personal friends” – recalled a conversation in which “Moira told me that her young children were saying ‘my mum’s a Nazi’”.
“She told me that, even though they did not understand what this meant, she was distraught that her children were saying this.”
The political figure and prominent no campaigner during the voice to parliament referendum also said he was urged by some in the Liberal party to distance himself from Deeming or risk damaging his own reputation amid the fallout from the rally.
“I recall having a telephone conversation with a senior member of the parliamentary party of the Victorian Liberal party who said to me that if the leader of the party is willing to make such a public accusation that Moira is a Nazi, then it must be true,” Mundine said.
Henderson, now shadow education minister, detailed private WhatsApp messages she sent to Pesutto expressing “deep concern” that her friend would be ousted from the party.
“John, I am deeply concerned about moves to expel Moira,” she wrote. “There’s no suggestion she is linked to the rightwing extremists. She is raising concerns about which many women are very concerned. Where is the procedural fairness in this reported decision?”
In a later message, Henderson said while she didn’t “share all of Moira’s views” the Liberal party was a “broad church”, adding an internal investigation would have allowed him to “consider the ramifications in the cold light of day”.
Henderson said in her statement Deeming had expressed “fear for her and her family’s safety” since the episode, causing her “extreme distress [and] anxiety”.
Deeming’s husband, Andrew Deeming, said he was worried his wife would “never recover” from the damage of the media publications, labelling her “emotionally damaged, withdrawn and traumatised”.
In his statement, he said that his wife had been “shocked, surprised [and] consumed” by Pesutto’s initial media release following the LWS event, recalling her repeatedly saying words to the effect of ‘I can’t believe he did this’.
“Then she started panicking about how everyone would think she and our family were Nazis,” he wrote. “She was repeating to herself over and over again that she was worried people would think she was a Nazi.”
Deeming said his wife now feared going out in public and had started having nightmares “about being attacked by people who thought she was a Nazi”.
Ruddick recalled speaking at an event with Deeming in July 2023 when she became “very emotional” discussing “attacks” on her by her former party, claiming: “She had to pause for around a minute and had tears and a trembling voice”.
During her second day of cross-examination on Wednesday, Deeming said she was “determined to be brave” and attend the rally despite warnings of security threats.
She told the court that she was alerted during the Melbourne event that there were “men in black” nearby but said she only became aware the Nazi salute had been performed when the group was escorted out by police.
On Wednesday, the court was shown footage of neo-Nazis repeatedly performing the Nazi salute on the steps of parliament on the day of the rally after unfurling a banner that read “destroy paedo freaks”.
Deeming said she had not previously seen the footage.
“The first thing that came to my head was, ‘why weren’t they arrested?’” she said.
During cross-examination by Pesutto’s barrister, Matthew Collins KC, Deeming initially said she was not aware that a member of the far-right group Proud Boys had previously attended and spoken at a Let Women Speak rally in the United States alongside UK gender-critical activist Kellie-Jay Keen, who co-organised the Melbourne event.
Later, when shown a tweet which referenced this and which she had replied to on the evening of the rally, Deeming accepted she was incorrect.
Collins asked if Deeming understood Proud Boys to be a far-right organisation in the US.
“No. I don’t know who they are,” Deeming replied.
Earlier, the courtroom was also shown an email Deeming had written to parliament’s security services on 14 March 2023 requesting security to be on site for the event to let her back into parliament “in an emergency”. She also requested extra security guards, saying she had been alerted to “personal and group threats from counter protests” at the rally.
“Mrs Deeming, this did not set [off] alarm bells in your mind that this was always going to be controversial and divisive?” Collins asked the MP on Wednesday.
Deeming said she agreed it was going to be controversial but rejected the characterisation of the rally as divisive.
“Knowing there were threats from counter-protesters, in some way, made me more determined to be brave and to go,” she said.
Deeming told the court she had been informed during the rally that there were “men in black” in attendance.
“Someone told me there was a horrible sign. They said they’d tried to ask police to make them leave,” she said.
Deeming said she was told there was “nothing we could do” and the group “just got back to our rally”.
“I didn’t know they had done the Nazi salute,” she said.
She said her memory of the day was “disjointed” because it was a “stressful day”.
On Tuesday, the court was played audio from a secretly recorded meeting that took place a day after Deeming spoke at the rally, during which she repeatedly told Pesutto and members of the Liberal party’s leadership team she was not a Nazi.
Deeming is heard defending herself in the recording, saying: “Very obviously, I’m not a Nazi and I don’t support Nazis.”
Pesutto told Deeming in the recording that her attendance at the rally was “toxic” for the party.
At the end of the recording, Pesutto informed Deeming he would move a motion to expel her.
On Monday, Deeming’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, said there were multiple protest groups near the steps of parliament on the day of the Let Women Speak rally. She said the neo-Nazis were a separate group and were speaking over the rally’s speeches.
The event was co-organised by 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 rights was silencing, and discriminating against, women.
Deeming has alleged that Pesutto defamed her in media releases, press conferences and interviews he gave after the rally.
In his defence document, Pesutto argued that he “repeatedly and unequivocally acknowledged publicly that he does not believe Deeming to be a neo-Nazi, a white supremacist, or anything of similar substance or effect”.
He admitted to conveying some imputations, including that Deeming associated with speakers at the event who had “known links with neo-Nazis and white supremacists”.
In court documents, Pesutto said he would rely on the defences of honest opinion, contextual truth, public interest and qualified privilege.
The defamation trial is expected to run for three weeks.
