Moira Deeming secretly recorded an internal meeting with senior Liberals during which she denied she was transphobic or homophobic and asked party leaders to launch a “full-fronted” attack on those criticising her.
It is the second covert recording to be unearthed and aired in the Federal Court during the defamation case state MP Deeming launched against Opposition Leader John Pesutto.
Moira Deeming arriving at court on Thursday.Credit: Joe Armao
“My biggest fans are gay people and trans people,” Deeming could be heard saying in a secret recording of the February 23, 2023, meeting played to the court. “I could get a row of lesbians to stand around you at a press conference and back you up.”
The meeting came in the days after Deeming gave her maiden speech to parliament, in which she slammed “equality taken to extremes”, and after her emails during her time at Melton City Council were released under freedom-of-information laws. The emails were characterised as anti-trans and anti-abortion, which Deeming rejects.
The recorded meeting was held a month before the Let Women Speak rally on the steps of the Victorian parliament which Deeming helped organise.
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In the meeting, Pesutto and upper house opposition leader Georgie Crozier asked Deeming to put the case for her views without becoming a distraction or derailing the opposition.
Pesutto, in audio played to the court on day 13 of the defamation trial, could be heard opening the meeting by saying, “We’ve got a huge problem.”
He said he was going to be torn to shreds by the Labor government and at press conferences.
