Supporters of former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto are fundraising to pay off his legal costs after he was ordered to pay more than $2.3 million for losing a defamation case brought by fellow Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
The fundraiser, set up on Friday afternoon on the website GoFundMe by “Elizabeth Sceney and Friends of John Pesutto”, has set a target of $70,000 and by 9pm it had raised $48,832 with 120 donations.
John Pesutto’s supporters have set up a public fundraiser for him in an effort to prevent his bankruptcy. (GoFundMe)
The Federal Court order handed down on Friday morning, raises the prospect Mr Pesutto will be bankrupted and forced out of state parliament.
Ms Deeming successfully sued Mr Pesutto after he moved to expel her from the party room in 2023 after she attended an anti-trans-rights rally that was gatecrashed by Neo-Nazis.
It is understood Mr Pesutto will be unable to pay the costs order, or his own legal bills, and has been seeking loans from Liberal powerbrokers to fend off being made bankrupt, but no deal has been struck.
People who are bankrupt are disqualified from state parliament.
John Pesutto was ousted as opposition leader following his defeat in court to former Liberal MP Moira Deeming. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
Despite the financial pressures, Mr Pesutto has vowed to continue serving as Member for Hawthorn for as long as possible.
“Whilst I am taking time to review today’s Court decision with family and advisers, I reiterate that I am determined to continue serving the people of my electorate of Hawthorn and the people of Victoria for as long as they will have me,” Mr Pesutto said in a statement on Friday.
“I am grateful for the support I am receiving from the community and am hopeful with this support that I will be able to fulfill these obligations and continue serving the people of Victoria.”
Other efforts to raise funds for Pesutto
The legal battle was prompted by Ms Deeming attending a Let Women Speak rally at state parliament in March 2023.
The event, categorised by supporters as a women’s rights event, featured UK anti-trans-rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen. Ms Deeming was also involved in organising the rally.
Late last year a judge found Mr Pesutto defamed Ms Deeming on multiple occasions, including in radio and TV interviews.
The court found Mr Pesutto had conveyed an imputation that Ms Deeming “associates with Nazis and is thus unfit to be a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party”.
Ms Deeming was awarded $315,000 in damages and Mr Pesutto ultimately lost his job as party leader.
Ms Deeming, who was expelled from the Liberal party room in the weeks after her attendance at the rally and exiled to the crossbench, was readmitted after her defamation win.
The leadership tensions and the court case became a front for the battle for control of the state party that was taking place internally.
It is understood Mr Pesutto has sought financial assistance from the Cormack Foundation, an investment body that provides financial assistance to the Liberal Party.
Other prominent Liberals have also tried to raise funds for him.
If he is forced from parliament, there is no guarantee that the Liberals will retain his Hawthorn seat in a by-election.
The seat sits within the independent-held federal seat of Kooyong, and internal voting-booth analysis of the May 3 election results show a tough road for the Liberals in the electorate.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin was tight-lipped in the wake of the ruling, dismissing questions about a by-election as hypothetical.
He has been criticised by some of his colleagues for failing to broker a peace deal to avoid a costly by-election.
GoFundMe fundraiser offers Pesutto ‘chance to recover’
Among the donors on the GoFundMe fundraiser set up on Friday is Victorian Liberal MP Georgie Crozier who has pledged $500.
The largest donation is $10,000 by an anonymous person.
The description written by the fundraiser’s creator Elizabeth Sceney said the initiative was set up to prevent Mr Pesutto’s “worst-case scenario”.
“Every contribution regardless of amount, will make a meaningful difference.”
Later she told ABC Radio Melbourne that Mr Pesutto was supportive of what she was doing for him.
“John has been a good friend to many people inside the party and outside the party and I know personally of people that John has helped,” Ms Sceney said.
Former premiers advocate to save Pesutto
Former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu is among the Liberal faithful chipping in to help save Mr Pesutto’s political career.
“I’ll do what I can, I’ll do what I can to encourage others to support him,” Mr Baillieu said.
“We need John in parliament.
“Nobody wants a by-election around here, the people of Victoria don’t want a by-election.”
He said the legal stoush would do nothing to encourage people into the leadership role in future.
“If you’re a leader you like to know you’ve got the support of the party and I think that is something the party has to think about.”
It was a sentiment shared by another former Liberal Party premier, Jeff Kennett.
“Why would you go into politics in the future if you thought or the court deemed you’d made a mistake and you were bankrupted?” Mr Kennett said.
He said the Liberal Party should, “without any question of a doubt”, donate to Mr Pesutto’s cause, citing Liberal Party trust funds set up years ago.
“The people who set it up, when I was a young backbencher, would not have thought it possible that we do not protect, in this case, our leaders in opposition.
“There is no way John Pesutto should be bankrupted.”
He said bankruptcy would be unfair on Mr Pesutto and his family.
“I’ve already had two calls, one from a former Labor minister and one from a public servant who are ready to donate because they think the process of bankrupting, in this case a member of the opposition who was only doing his job, as best he could as leader of the opposition is wrong, immoral,” Mr Kennett said.
