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Deeming grilled over divisive transgender comments
On the second day of her defamation proceedings, Moira Deeming was questioned about her opinions on transgender and gender-diverse people and the supposed links she made to paedophiles.
Naomi Neilson
At the beginning of opening submissions on behalf of Deeming, Sue Chrysanthou SC said reputation would “apparently” be an issue in the three-week trial but the very fact her client was elected into the Liberal Party meant she had a “good reputation in the community”.
In that vein, Collins grilled Deeming on her views and public comments about transgender and gender-diverse people.
In response to one of the many objections from Chrysanthou, Collins told Justice David O’Callaghan he intended to walk the court through a body of evidence “involving the conflation of transgender issues on the one hand and paedophilia on the other”.
Asked by the judge how it would be necessary to his case – particularly given the court has heard “strongly different views” that may not be “hate-filled” – Collins said the court was going to be taken to “a lot of evidence that, on any view of it, is hateful”.
Granted permission to continue the line of inquiry, Collins asked Deeming about public comments she made on the Safe Schools program. While not part of the curriculum, the program was designed to create a safe and inclusive space for LGBTI students.
Deeming had alleged the program led to child’s safeguarding being removed and the promotion of “high-risk sexual activities”.
Collins then took Deeming to online comments she made that referred to the program as being “paedophilic garbage” and suggested supporters were “paedophilic apologists”.
Deeming said she “absolutely” stood by these statements.
The Let Women Speak rally Deeming attended last March on the steps of Parliament House was gatecrashed by a group of men who wore black, did a Nazi salute, and held anti-paedophilia signs.
On Tuesday, the court heard Deeming first contacted the organiser and anti-transgender rights campaigner, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, ahead of the rally because she was “excited” about her visit.
In a message, Deeming wrote it was “going to take a global constituency of women to defeat this madness”.
When Collins asked what she meant by “madness”, Deeming elaborated: “The laws that erase the biological categories of sex for safeguarding, and single-sex spaces for sports – and things like that.”
Deeming admitted she paid for part of the rally. She said she could not recall whether she was refunded part or full of her contribution.
Earlier in the day, the court heard a clandestine audio recording of a meeting between the Victorian Liberal leadership team and Deeming, held not long after her attendance at the rally.
During the hour-long conversation, Pesutto can be heard telling Deeming he had “serious concerns” about her attendance and connection with the organisers. He added he was worried the media would connect him and the party to the neo-Nazi group.
Deeming was heard telling Pesutto she was “very obviously … not a Nazi and I don’t support Nazis”.
Despite the continued objections, Pesutto ended the meeting by notifying Deeming he intended to expel her from the party and offered her the opportunity to resign.
The hearing continues.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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