75 Later that day, Mr Pesutto held a press conference. A transcript of it is Ex A111; CC:180. The stated purpose of the press conference was for Mr Pesutto to make statements and take questions about an issue relating to Mr Danny Pearson MP (a Minister in the Labor Andrews government), which he did. A considerable part of the press conference was, however, taken up with questions from journalists about Mrs Deeming's "views". It concluded as follows:
JOURNALIST: Can I just clarify, do you condemn Moira Deeming's views?
[MR] PESUTTO: I don't agree with those views.
Everybody knows I'm a very inclusive leader. I believe in a Victoria where all Victorians have an opportunity to reach their full potential no matter what their background.
I'll let Moira speak to her views but my position on these issues is clear and has been for a long time. Everybody knows me and that I'm a modern progressive liberal who believes in these values and I'll make sure that under my leadership we will be a strong voice for all Victorians no matter what their background.
8 to 17 March 2023
76 Mrs Deeming gave a speech in Parliament on 8 March for International Women's Day, in which she said she would be attending the LWS rally and invited the Minister for Women, Ms Natalie Hutchins MP, to attend (CB:1, 7[37]). The speech explained in a summary way Mrs Deeming's views about "sex-based rights":
My adjournment matter is also for the Minister for Women. First of all, I would like to note that on this International Women's Day it is my honour to be a part of the first ever Legislative Council to have a majority of female MPs. In many ways we women of the upper house are treading a path opened up for us by Dame Enid Lyons, who was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and who was also a proud member of the Liberal Party.
However, I must also note with sadness the scandalous fact that women's rights have actually gone backwards in this state. Many of the hard-won rights that women have fought for so that we could fully and equally participate in public life over the course of the last 100 years are lost. We no longer have the right to female-only public toilets, change rooms and refuges, and all those so-called affirmative action measures like gender quotas, scholarships and grants that were supposed to be just for women are lost now too. Female-only sports leagues, which gave so many young women, me included, access to fair and fun sporting competition are now also lost. Females have lost the right - the basic right - to associate exclusively with each other. We are not allowed to have female-only gyms, and even lesbians are not allowed to have female-only dating apps. Violent male sexual offenders are housed with vulnerable female prisoners. In fact there is a vulnerable group of women in my area, in the Dame Phyllis Frost correctional centre, who have reached out to me, to the government and to the media, crying out for help because they are scared and they are vulnerable and they look around the world and they see what has happened to other women in prisons where violent male rapists have been housed.
Why has this situation happened? It is because the government cannot seem to crack
