Overview

• Moira Deeming’s legal team has demanded details on donors including former premiers Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine to recover the $2.3 million court-ordered costs.
• John Pesutto faces a May 30 deadline to pay $2.3 million in legal fees or risk bankruptcy, which would force his exit from parliament and trigger a Hawthorn by-election.
• Victorian Liberal officials are preparing a last-minute proposal for a loan—possibly involving the Cormack Foundation—to help Pesutto meet the judgment against him.
• Pesutto has raised about $700,000 through crowdfunding and private contributions but remains far short of the amount needed to avoid insolvency.
• Opposition Leader Brad Battin has called the saga a distracting issue and declined to publicly intervene in the party’s internal deliberations over the loan plan.