71 That same day, Mrs Deeming met with Ms Crozier and Mr Pesutto, following publication in the Herald Sun newspaper of an article critical of her, apparently based on the content of some of those emails.
72 Mrs Deeming secretly recorded the meeting.
73 The audio recording is Ex R73. The agreed transcript of it is Ex R72.
74 These are the relevant parts of what was said (errors in the original):
JP [Mr Pesutto]: The media wanna tear us up big time over the stories in the Herald Sun today and the stuff in the media recently. Um we've got Danny Pearson on the ropes but that's now been washed away. Um I suppose I wanted to have an initial conversation to see how we're going to deal with these serious issues because I know that there are deeply held views and I've said to you and said to others that I'd never ask anybody to change their views but this is what we're gonna get hit with every time we go out. I can't send anybody out now without issues around you coming up. Just went out there yesterday to smash Pearson um and the press conference immediately or very soon turned to you. I've gotta go out today and I've gotta face a press pack where I would have liked to have been talking about Danny Pearson resigning. I'm gonna have to put that off. Um so, I know we all come in here with views and I would never ask anyone to change their views and I mean that but we're gonna have to work out how we do this in a way which allows the party to reach out broadly across the cross section of the community and win elections. We just can't do it. We we will just get smashed and I can't see if if we don't have a way of working through these issues I just don't see how we're gonna do it in a way where we can win seats across the board and form government. Um so I wanted to have an initial chat because I think what I'm gonna get attacked with today is that um we hate and I know you'll have something to say on this but the the line they're going to run is that we support harmful speech, we hate same sex transgender people, we hate transgender people, we you know we're um we're fiercely opposed to um anyone in that community. Now I know you have views on that but we're gonna, we're gonna need to come up with something because um I'm gonna get torn apart and and not just me everyone is. No shadow will be able to go out there and face the media on issues that we actually want to talk about until we find a way just to say okay people are entitled to their views um---
MD [Mrs Deeming]: I would very much like it if none of you would let it stand when they say what do you think about Moira's anti-trans views. I don't have anti-trans views I don't have homophobic views. No one has ever been able to come up with any evidence that I do and yet I'm labelled with those words.
JP: Yeah they're certainly picking apart, I mean I I haven't had a chance to go through all the emails um---
MD: Which emails?
JP: Uh the emails that are referred to in the Herald Sun um---
…
So I think, I think we need to put something out like that to calm it down because um they're, they're in a---
GC [Ms Crozier]: frenzy
