A year to the day after an anti-trans rights rally was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, the state opposition leader faces further defamation action linked to the rally aftermath.
John Pesutto has declared he will not be sued out of his job as state opposition leader despite the expectation of two further defamation cases against him, as he released the names of more donors bankrolling his defence against exiled Liberal MP Moira Deeming.
“I think he’s a very worthy and deserving leader that I believe the organisation absolutely should have supported in this. And I’m dismayed that there seem to be those few around him who don’t realise or are forgetting that disunity is death.” “Let me make my position very clear. I’m determined to lead a Liberal Party and a Coalition that will win the election at 2026. Our state needs new leadership. I’m not focused on any litigation, it’s with lawyers. I’m focused entirely on my job as opposition leader.”they had not received any phone calls from potential challengers for the leadership and did not expect a spill this week.
Shadow housing minister Richard Riordan was asked twice on Monday whether he wanted Pesutto as leader during an ABC Radio Melbourne interview. “I’ve got more chance of growing dreadlocks than a leadership challenge occurring . Nobody has called me over the weekend. It’s a beat-up by certain sections of the media to take the focus off the Allan government’s incompetence.”Deeming, who remains in the upper house on the crossbench, was removed from the parliamentary Liberal Party in May last year after threatening to bring in lawyers in the fallout from her role in the Let Women Speak rally.
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