Latest / The Front / ‘Trans rights’ defamation battle hots up

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‘Trans rights’ defamation battle hots up · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 1: every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play
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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Wednesday, September twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: More pain for mortgage holders after the Reserve Bank held
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  Speaker 1: interest rates at four point three five percent on Tuesday.
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  Speaker 1: It's the seventh straight RBA meeting where the cash rate
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  Speaker 1: has remained unchanged.
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  Speaker 2: The board needs to be consonant that inflation is moving
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  Speaker 2: sustainably towards the target for any decisions are made about
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  Speaker 2: a reduction and interest rate.
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  Speaker 1: Do women's rights activists belong in the Liberal Party? That's
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  Speaker 1: one of the issues being thrashed out in the Federal
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  Speaker 1: Court in a big defamation battle between the Victorian Opposition
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  Speaker 1: leader and an MP kicked out of the party today.
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  Speaker 1: Superstar barristers Sue Chrisanthu and Matt Collins lock Hoorn's.
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  Speaker 2: Your values do not dictate the beliefs and tenets of
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  Speaker 2: the Liberal Party merely because you are a current leader.
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  Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the words spoken in court
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  Speaker 1: by defamation lawyer Sue Chrisanthu sc on Tuesday, Chrisanthu was
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  Speaker 1: grilling victorious opposition leader John Pizuto.
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  Speaker 2: And frankly, your personal values as leader are irrelevant to
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  Speaker 2: the underlying beliefs and values of the Liberal Party. It's
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  Speaker 2: not your party merely because as at March twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 2: you'd been a leader for a few months.
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  Speaker 1: Do you agree or disagree?
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  Speaker 3: I agree, it's not my party.
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  Speaker 1: Fizudo is being sued for defamation by ousted Victorian MP
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  Speaker 1: Moira Deeming. She was booted from the party after organizing
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  Speaker 1: and speaking at a wild March twenty twenty three rally
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  Speaker 1: by self styled women's rights activists. The rally drew crowds
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  Speaker 1: of pro trans protesters and a group of men in
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  Speaker 1: black making Nazi salutes.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you to each and every one of you that
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  Speaker 2: cal crave enough to come here. And it's not your values,
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  Speaker 2: particularly as you'd only been leader for a few months
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  Speaker 2: as at March twenty twenty three, that were relevant and
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  Speaker 2: making decisions in the party room.
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  Speaker 3: Of course they were. Let's be realistic here, your honor.
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  Speaker 3: I'm the leader. I was elected because of what I
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  Speaker 3: stand for, and I was elected because of what I
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  Speaker 3: can bring to the role.
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  Speaker 2: You were elected by one vote, so.
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  Speaker 3: What I'm the elected leader, your honor?
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  Speaker 2: Would you like to answer my question?
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  Speaker 1: Rather than give speeches?
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  Speaker 4: Missus Deming could and should have worked out that she
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  Speaker 4: was walking into a disaster.
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  Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the words of Colin's CAC
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  Speaker 1: Council for John Persuto and those angry men were the
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  Speaker 1: neo Nazis who showed up at the rally. Deeming organized
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  Speaker 1: and performed Adolf Hitler's one armed salute in his opening
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  Speaker 1: address delivered on Tuesday. Just before John Persuto entered the
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  Speaker 1: witness box, Colin said Moira Deeming had breached her obligation
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  Speaker 1: to demonstrate to victorians that the Liberal Party was united,
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  Speaker 1: inclusive and deserving of being elected. Colin said when Deeming
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  Speaker 1: her that British activist Kelly J. Keene Minshol, also known
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  Speaker 1: as Posey Parker, was coming to Australia on a speaking tour,
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  Speaker 1: she contacted her asking how she could help.
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  Speaker 4: She paid for security guards for the rally, organized and
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  Speaker 4: paid for the sound equipment. She fundraised for the rally,
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  Speaker 4: She promoted the rally, She booked the steps of Parliament
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  Speaker 4: House for the rally, and she arranged to escort miss
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  Speaker 4: Keene to the steps.
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  Speaker 1: The issue Colin said was that Kelly J. Keen Minshol
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  Speaker 1: had made it clear in the weeks before this rally
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  Speaker 1: that she believed trans people were associated with pedophiles. Collins
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  Speaker 1: cited an article in the Courier Mail quoting Keen at
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  Speaker 1: a Brisbane rally five days before the Melbourne rally. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what that article said. Miss Kean told the crowd that
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  Speaker 1: she doesn't think trans is a thing and described it
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  Speaker 1: as a dirty fetish and cult. The article went on
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  Speaker 1: to quote a local LGBTI organization claiming Keen was linked
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  Speaker 1: to the Proud Boys, a far right American movement, Holocaust deniers,
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  Speaker 1: and white supremacists.
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  Speaker 4: A member of a mainstream political party which aspires to government,
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  Speaker 4: a member of that party has no business in organizing
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  Speaker 4: rallies to the extent that Missus Deeming did without having
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  Speaker 4: done basic research which would have uncovered just how top
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  Speaker 4: these associations would prove to be. Mister Pursuito wants to
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  Speaker 4: be elected to government. Anyone who had conducted a Google
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  Speaker 4: search on missus Keane's name would have found precisely this
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  Speaker 4: sort of information about her, and that was inimical to
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  Speaker 4: mister Pursuito's project, the Parliamentary Liberal Parties project of forming
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  Speaker 4: the next government of our state.
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  Speaker 1: An agenda and to destroy the new Clair family, to
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  Speaker 1: destroy particularly women. This is Kelly J. Keen min'shole, also
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  Speaker 1: known as Posey Parker, in an interview published on YouTube
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  Speaker 1: shortly before her Melbourne rally. Paraphilias like transsectionism transgenderism, they're
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  Speaker 1: often accompanied by another parathions.
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  Speaker 2: It's very uncommon for a that for a man to
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  Speaker 2: have one.
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  Speaker 1: So that's another league and the.
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  Speaker 2: Most commons to children because of the transagender.
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  Speaker 4: The Macquarie Dictionary definition of paraphilia is a preference for
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  Speaker 4: or addiction to an unusual sexual practice. Transsexualism and transgenderism
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  Speaker 4: are not unusual sexual practices. They're a form of gender identity.
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  Speaker 1: Deeming earlier told Colins in the witness Box she'd never
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  Speaker 1: heard Keen say those things. Deeming said she hadn't heard
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  Speaker 1: Keen say that pedophiles would get easier access to children
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  Speaker 1: because of the transagenda.
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  Speaker 4: What one has in the public statements by missus Keen
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  Speaker 4: is an easy illusion between trans people and pedophilia.
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  Speaker 1: Colin said, Kelly J. Keen Minshol's online presence was also
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  Speaker 1: full of invocations of the Nazis.
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  Speaker 4: She would have found photos of missus Keane smiling with
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  Speaker 4: an alleged Holocaust denier. She would have found a profile
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  Speaker 4: picture used by missus Keane of a Barbie doll in
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  Speaker 4: a Nazi uniform, and she would have seen a tweet
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  Speaker 4: from missus Kean equating the tactics of those who argue
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  Speaker 4: LGBTI rights, that is, the Pride Movement, with the tactics
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  Speaker 4: of the Gestapo during World War II. I will seek
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  Speaker 4: to persuade your honor that missus Kean is plainly anti trans.
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  Speaker 4: Anyone who says that transsexualism or transgenderism is connected to
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  Speaker 4: pedophilia is spouting hateful, hateful speech, and there are many
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  Speaker 4: statements of that kind by her. When someone describes trans
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  Speaker 4: as a dirty fetish and a cult, that's hateful.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up the Nazis in tight little shorts. At the Australian,
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  Speaker 1: we've got live coverage of all the big court cases
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  Speaker 1: and our subscribers will be the first to know who
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  Speaker 1: wins this battle for the soul of Victoria's Liberal Party.
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  Speaker 1: Join us at the Australian dot Com dot a you
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  Speaker 1: this idea that people who advocate for the rights of
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  Speaker 1: trans people are advocating for pedophilia. That's what self styled
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  Speaker 1: Nazi Thomas Sewele declared on the steps of Parliament to.
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  Speaker 2: Every cigarette, not just sting for your They're going for everyone.
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  Speaker 1: If you didn't catch that Sewell, who's wearing a tight
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  Speaker 1: black T shirt and tiny little black shorts, says, these communists,
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  Speaker 1: pedophiles and trainees have infiltrated every single institution. They're going
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  Speaker 1: for everyone's children.
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  Speaker 4: Mister Sewell. The neo Nazis were claiming that the reason
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  Speaker 4: they had gone to Parliament House was to protect Missus
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  Speaker 4: Keane's protest. They were there as a vanguard for that protest.
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  Speaker 1: At the rally, pro transactivists being held across the street
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  Speaker 1: by police on horseback, were linking the Nazis with Kelly
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  Speaker 1: j Keen Minshol.
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  Speaker 4: Missus Deeming knew that the Melbourne rally had the potential
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  Speaker 4: to become violent. She was aware of personal and group
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  Speaker 4: threats being made, and she took steps to arrange extra
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  Speaker 4: security on behalf of Let Women Speak. She said that
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  Speaker 4: the fact that there were threats made her quote more
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  Speaker 4: determined to be brave and go. She said that she
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  Speaker 4: did not tell mister Persuto or anyone else in the
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  Speaker 4: leadership team of the threats that have been received and
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  Speaker 4: of which she was aware.
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  Speaker 1: This is not a case about whether the Liberals were
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  Speaker 1: right to bounce Deeming. It's a defamation claim brought by
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  Speaker 1: Deeming against Perzuto. She says he defamed her by falsely
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  Speaker 1: suggesting she was a Nazi sympathizer. Perzuto is relying on
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  Speaker 1: defenses of contextual truth and honest opinion about a matter
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  Speaker 1: of public interest. He says Deeming is not a fit
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  Speaker 1: and proper person to be in the Liberal Party.
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  Speaker 4: In mister Persuto's view, she brought the Parliamentary Liberal Party
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  Speaker 4: into disrepute to such an extent that the leadership team
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  Speaker 4: thought they were compelled to act against her. Politics is
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  Speaker 4: a rough game. Politics is a brutal game. This is
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  Speaker 4: a fight to hold the government of our state. In
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  Speaker 4: order to hold called the government of our state in
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  Speaker 4: a system with compulsory voting, one has to attract the mainstream.
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  Speaker 4: One has to attract a majority of the electors. That
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  Speaker 4: means associations of this kind are absolutely toxic. They drive
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  Speaker 4: people from the center a mile away from thinking that
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  Speaker 4: your party is fit to govern. That's why he acted.
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  Speaker 1: The trial continues. Follow it live by joining our subscribers
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  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com dot au