John Pesutto has paid a high price fighting for the idea a woman can have a penis.

It is this stupidity that has brought the former Victorian Liberal leader to the edge of bankruptcy and losing his seat in Parliament.

That the likes of former Liberal Premier Jeff Kennet and other establishment figures are to this day backing Pesutto defies logic.

All of this could have been avoided if Pesutto had not tried to unjustly expel, demonise and destroy his colleague Moira Deeming.

The trouble started in 2023 when Deeming helped organise a “Let Women Speak” rally on the steps of the Victorian Parliament House.

The event was to advocate for the rights of girls and women sport and spaces free of the encroachment of biological males who think they are women.

The rally was gate crashed by shouty anti-free speech LGBTIQA+ activists, socialists and neo-Nazis.

Pesutto immediately falsely labelled Deeming a Nazi associate and set about booting her from the Liberal party and destroying her life.

She sued for defamation in the Federal Court and won.

Pesutto has been ordered to pay Deeming’s $2.3 million legal costs, something he failed to do by last Friday’s deadline.

Bankruptcy proceedings are now underway and unless Pesutto coughs up, he will have to resign from his seat of Hawthorn.

The Liberals have put Deeming and her family through hell, yet Kennet wants to blame her for damaging the Liberal party brand.

He wrote this week to the Victorian Liberal administrative committee urging them to bail Pesutto out using party funds.

“It is wrong that one of our colleagues should be threatened with bankruptcy for doing their job.”

Seriously?

Pesutto falsely labelled Deeming and the other women Nazi associates.

A Liberal leader’s “job”, Jeff Kennet, is to stand up for the truth, be fair to one’s colleagues and uphold freedom of speech.

The Liberals’ founder Sir Robert Menzies would have expected no less.

Deeming’s financial backer, Hilton Grugeon, has every right to expect the loan for her legal expenses to be repaid.

Pesutto could have settled out of court for $99,000 without offering an apology but dug in.

Pesutto is not the victim.

Hilton Grugeon said last week: “I lent Moira whatever it took, and her solicitor had a blank cheque. You couldn’t not help. Good men were doing nothing.”

What a great Australian.

Grugeon put his finger on the biggest problem amongst leaders in contemporary Australia. Too many are silent and do nothing.

Family First has taken a strong interest in Deeming’s case from the beginning.

If the so-called conservative side of politics gets away with destroying her for standing up for the rights of girls and women, none of us are safe.

Her courage has poked the Liberal party establishment in the eye.

The truth is they never wanted her and tried first to kick her out before the 2022 election because she believes marriage is heterosexual, family is paramount, there are only two genders and she is pro-life.

Deeming has conducted herself with dignity as she has stood for Menzien values in the face of a party establishment which has long abandoned them.

If the Liberals ever recover and again become a force for good, Deeming’s victory over Pesutto will be seen as the turning point.

The jury is out.

Moira Deeming’s statement regarding the court order to John Pesutto

One of the Liberal Party’s core values is equality before the law — an enduring principle that demands accountability regardless of status, wealth, or title. No individual should be excused for breaking the law just because they are ‘important’ or ‘rich’ or ‘powerful’.

Friday marked the final day for Mr. John Pesutto to reimburse me for $2.3m in legal costs, following the Federal Court ruling that he seriously defamed and harmed me. Mr Pesutto failed to do so, and as such, bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated.

This is not a decision I take lightly, nor with any sense of triumph. My goal is simple, to ensure that I am reimbursed so that I can repay that loan as I promised I would.

The fact is that Mr. Pesutto refused to retract or apologise for his defamatory claims or to settle out of court, despite never having or securing the funding necessary to cover the costs of the case.

As revealed after the Judgement, I had even offered early in the proceedings to accept a settlement for $99,000 without an apology. For reasons only known to himself, Mr Pesutto rejected that offer. And due to this, the court awarded me costs at the highest level, ‘indemnity costs’, from that time.

The past two years have been a harrowing journey for me, my husband and our four children. After being falsely accused of bigotry, of knowingly associating with Nazis — claims the court found to be defamatory, I faced a torrent of public and private abuse, including rape threats, stalking and personal and professional humiliation and isolation. Sadly, I was not the only innocent woman who suffered as a result of the campaign to expel me.

There is no justification — legal, moral or political — for defaming and vilifying an innocent person. Even after I was vindicated by the court, Mr Pesutto refused to make amends with me, and used his casting vote to deny my re-entry to the Party room.

To this day, Mr Pesutto and his supporters have refused to admit they expelled me without cause or show any compassion toward me, and instead have embarked on a new round of media portraying themselves as the victims. This speaks volumes about their character.

The possibility of a costly by-election in the seat of Hawthorn is not something I welcome. But retain it or lose it, the greater threat to the Liberal Party is not the pain and cost of pursuing justice, but the dishonour and shame of failing to uphold it.

Through all of this, there is one person whose leadership deserves recognition. Our Liberal leader, Brad Battin has demonstrated integrity, humility and strength. When others wavered, he stood firm. He did not try to manipulate or punish me. He refused to allow factional games to dictate justice. His character and calm during this storm have shown me — and many others — that politics can still be a place of honour.

So too have the army of everyday, rank and file Liberals who have had my back and kept the party machine “honest”. This moment should never have come to pass. But since it has, let it stand as a reckoning — not just for one individual, but for a culture of political brutality that must end. No man is above the law.