Alex Greenwich awarded $140,000 after suing Mark Latham in defamation action

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has been awarded 140-thousand dollars after suing former One Nation New South Wales leader Mark Latham for defamation. He took Mr Latham to the Federal Court over a graphic, homophobic tweet published last year.

Transcript

00:00This tweet was posted in March last year, and for the context, it happened around the

00:06time that Mark Latham was scheduled to speak at a Western Sydney church, and outside there

00:10was a rally of LGBT protesters.

00:12There was some really bad violence directed at those protesters, and Alex Greenwich made

00:17a comment about Mark Latham in the media, referring to him as a disgusting human being.

00:22Now in response to that, that's really what triggered Mark Latham to take to Twitter and

00:26post this tweet that said, disgusting, how does that compare with, and then he went on

00:30to refer to sexual activity in some quite vulgar terms, which we won't repeat.

00:36That was really the central point of this defamation case.

00:38Alex Greenwich argued that painted him as a person who engages in disgusting sexual

00:43activities, and he also accused Mr. Latham of further defaming him in comments that Mr.

00:48Latham then gave to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

00:51So that really set up this hearing earlier this year about whether the meanings or the

00:56imputations were conveyed by that tweet and the comments to the newspaper.

01:01Alex Greenwich was arguing a number of different meanings or imputations, and he succeeded

01:04on one of those.

01:06That was in relation to this claimed meaning of the tweet that he engages in disgusting

01:11sexual activities.

01:13Justice David O'Callaghan, who decided this case and sat in Victoria this morning, he's

01:18ruled that that imputation was conveyed, and he's also decided that Mark Latham's defences

01:24of honest opinion and qualified privilege have failed.

01:27Now, in regards to the Daily Telegraph comments, the judge has disagreed that there were any

01:32defamatory imputations in those, and he's also disagreed that there was a second defamatory

01:38meaning to the tweet.

01:39Alex Greenwich had argued that it also painted him as a person who wasn't a fit or proper

01:44person to sit in the New South Wales Parliament.

01:47The judge's decision, though, on that one meaning that has succeeded means that Alex

01:52Greenwich has been awarded $100,000 for non-economic loss and a further $40,000 in aggravated damages.

01:59So it is a win for him, and the judge has found that he was defamed by this tweet.

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