From the ongoing saga of the high-profile Christian Porter action against the ABC to “backyard” litigation testing the serious harm bar, defamation cases made headlines in 2022, with winners and losers alike shelling out millions to lawyers to protect their reputations.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has dropped a High Court appeal seeking to overturn a Full Court judgment that found a tweet by refugee activist Shane Bazzi labeling him a “rape apologist” was not defamatory.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has asked the High Court to overturn an appeals court judgment that found a tweet labelling him a “rape apologist” was not defamatory.
A judge has questioned how the court will award costs in refugee activist Shane Bazzi’s successful appeal against coalition leader Peter Dutton, saying crowdfunding for the activist’s legal costs made the issue “complicated and difficult”.
An appeals court has set aside a judgment awarding federal minister Peter Dutton $35,000 in his defamation case over a tweet by a refugee activist labelling him a “rape apologist”.
Counsel for Peter Dutton has told a court a reader needed to do “mental gymnastics” to understand activist Shane Bazzi’s “rape apologist” tweet as saying the minister doubted rape allegations rather than “excused” the act of rape.