Mandatory Denunciations and the Case of Deeming v Pesutto

Melbourne women's rights advocate Angie Jones tweeted the following message on 19 March 2023 at 10:59am .

It was Sunday morning , the day after the Let Women Speak ’ rally hosted by British women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen .

Twenty or so white men had staged their own protest on the steps of parliament at the same time as the event, holding a banner that read Destroy Paedo Freaks’ Liberal MP Moira Deeming was expelled from the Liberal parliamentary party room.

Deeming sued Liberal Leader John Pesutto for defamation.

Deeming v Pesutto 's defence rests on two charges of failure to denounce.

Deeming did not denounce the Nazi element at the Let Women Speak rally.

The defence claims that this tweet served to associate Jones with the NSN and neo- Nazis generally,” and that Deeming associated herself with Jones by co-hosting the rally with her.

It’s hard to fit the idea of guilt by association into a liberal individualist political framework.

The only people responsible for unfurling a banner reading “Destroy Paedo Freaks ” would be the people holding the banner.

White supremacists are bad, too, but they’re not Nazis .