00:00Welcome to the show.
00:07How are we going guys?
00:09Crispy chilli oil, great Victorian products here.
00:12But it's the political sideshow that's continuing to dog Victoria's Liberal Party.
00:16Do you want to be the next leader?
00:18Sorry, where's my entry?
00:20We'll take you.
00:22We're trying to get away from all of you.
00:24As leader John Persuto continues to defend a defamation suit
00:27brought on by his former colleague Moira Deeming,
00:30who claims her former boss implied she had Nazi links.
00:33Good morning everybody, I've got a race in.
00:35Some MPs are privately concerned the case is becoming
00:38too big a distraction for the party
00:41and are questioning Mr Persuto's position.
00:43How's your leadership?
00:44Oh, it's stable. Very good.
00:45Are you confident you have the support of colleagues?
00:47Yes, absolutely.
00:48All colleagues?
00:49I am very sure.
00:51I speak to my colleagues regularly and I've got no concerns in that area.
00:54Have they got any concerns?
00:55None expressed to me.
00:56You'll be there at the next election?
00:57Yes.
00:58How confident are you in it?
00:59Very, very confident.
01:00What makes you so confident?
01:01Because he is a great leader.
01:03While others in the coalition had a message
01:05for those who might be losing faith.
01:07Go and have a long cold shower and get on with your job.
01:10This defamation case will now drag on through most of October,
01:13meaning it'll hang over the opposition throughout the next sitting week.
01:17Today John Persuto's defence in the trial continued
01:20with former Liberal MP Matt Barke being called back from the UK
01:24to give evidence.
01:25I better do, I think, most of my talking in court today.
01:29And he did, claiming the Liberal Party had a culture
01:32of secretly recording each other.
01:34Afternoon, Dave.
01:35There you go.
01:36Deputy Leader David Southwick will give evidence tomorrow.
01:39Elias Kluwer, ABC News, Melbourne.
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