Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto admits he misspoke following a rally outside parliament that was gatecrashed by men who performed a Nazi salute.
Pesutto gave evidence in court on Sept. 30 as his defamation trial stretched into a third week.
Expelled Liberal MP Moira Deeming is suing him over comments he made in the days after the Let Women Speak rally in March 2023.
Pesutto insisted he did not suggest or imply Deeming was a Nazi or describe her as “odious.”
However, he accepted he “misspoke” multiple times over alleged indirect links between rally attendee Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and an activist who had previously spoken to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
“[It] truly was an error,” Pesutto told the Federal Court on Monday.
“I didn’t repeat it again.”
Pesutto previously reached settlements with Keen-Minshull and rally organiser Angela Jones, issuing both women a public apology.
Mediation efforts with Deeming failed and a string of Victorian Liberals have so far appeared at the high-stakes court battle, which has exposed a cache of private communications between senior party figures.
A document uploaded to the court’s website revealed that in May 2023 Deeming sent a draft copy of a statement to Peta Credlin, a Sky News host and former chief of staff to Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott.
Credlin replied to the email with a “suggested re-draft.”
Deeming has previously told the court the men in black who did the Nazi salute had nothing to do with the Let Women Speak rally, she found it “shocking” anyone would perform it and did not see the gesture until the men were escorted away by police.
The trial continues.
