- (ii) she received many messages, including on Facebook, which praised her speech and were otherwise supportive (CB:1, 6[35]) (some of these messages are in evidence at Ex A112; CC:183); and
- (iii) her speech was posted online "and went viral" and that she received positive comments and feedback online where videos of the speech had been uploaded (CB:1, 6[36]) (for example, positive comments about Mrs Deeming's maiden speech in response to a YouTube video about it are Ex A114; CC:188);
- (k) Mrs Deeming posted a Facebook post about her speech on 22 February 2023 (Ex A101; CC:166) which received hundreds of positive responses (which are Ex A102; CC:167);
- (l) Mrs Deeming published a tweet about her speech on 22 February 2023 (Ex A103; CC:168) which received at least 87 positive responses (which are Ex A104; CC:169);
- (m) Ms Wong gave evidence that she posted a tweet with an excerpt of a recording of Mrs Deeming's speech, which received 2600 "likes", was "reposted" 750 times, and received 77 "comments" which were "overwhelmingly supportive" of Mrs Deeming (CB:29, 318–319[9]–[12]). (A copy of a selection of those comments is at CC:171);
- (n) WFA also posted a Facebook post about Mrs Deeming's speech (Ex A105; CC:172), which received approximately 1300 comments which were positive towards Mrs Deeming (Ex A106; CC:173).
68 Mr Pesutto, on the other hand, sought to emphasise at trial what he described as the "widespread negative media coverage" of the maiden speech in The Age newspaper and other mainstream publications. He cited and produced two articles that he said he saw at the time ("New Liberal MP uses first speech to slam equality 'taken to extremes"' (The Age, 21 February 2023) (Ex R140); and "Premier hits back at new MP's transgender comment" (news.com.au, 22 February 2023) (Ex R141)).
69 On 22 February 2023, Mrs Deeming and Mr Pesutto exchanged a number of text messages about arranging to meet that day. They arranged to meet at 7.15pm. Shortly before their scheduled meeting, Mr Pesutto was informed that Mrs Deeming was out at dinner with other MPs and sent her a message at 7.14pm, which said, "I'm in my office Moira. Did you still want to meet?" Mrs Deeming responded at 7.23pm, "It's ok I'm sorry" (Ex R546; Ex A109).
70 On 23 February 2023, documents from Mrs Deeming's Melton City Council email account were obtained and publicly released pursuant to a freedom of information (FOI) request made by Sex Work Law Reform Victoria.
