Former New South Wales One Nation leader Mark Latham has been found to have defamed independent politician Alex Greenwich and has been ordered to pay $140,000 in damages.
Federal court justice David O’Callaghan handed down his judgment on Wednesday morning in Melbourne after the case was heard in May and June in Sydney.
“I have found that the first imputation relating to the primary tweet being that ‘Mr Greenwich engages in disgusting sexual activities’ was conveyed,” O’Callaghan said.
However the judge did not agree the tweet also implied Greenwich was not a fit and proper person to be a member of the NSW parliament.
The judge also did not agree that quotes published in a Daily Telegraph article implied that the politician was ‘a disgusting human being who goes into schools to groom children to become homosexual’.
O’Callaghan said Greenwich had “established that the publication of the primary tweet has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to his reputation”.
“Mr Latham relied on two defences in relation to the publication of the primary tweet, namely honest opinion and common law qualified privilege, reply to attack. I have found that neither defence has been made out,” O’Callaghan said.
The court was adjourned until 25 September for further orders.
Greenwich, who travelled to Melbourne for the judgment, sighed with relief and put his hand on his chest after it was handed down. He also hugged his barrister.
Speaking outside the court afterwards, Greenwich said he felt “relief and vindication,” and thanked his mother, husband and staff for their support through a “really tough” 18 months.
“The moment that tweet went out into the world, my life changed,” he said.
“I dealt with an onslaught of abuse that I’ve never experienced in my life.”
Greenwich said he hoped the judgment would have a “chilling effect” on the “Trump-style attacks” he said Latham had engaged in.
“We should have a higher standard of political discourse in Australia, and this judgment says that,” he said.
“I did it for my community as well. LGBTQ people experience this kind of bullying and abuse every single day in this country.”
He launched the defamation action against Latham after the former federal Labor leader posted an allegedly offensive, homophobic tweet on 30 March 2023 before giving several interviews repeating the comments and making claims about his parliamentary colleague.
Latham deleted the initial tweet, which was made in response to an article in which Greenwich called him a “disgusting human being”. The article was about LGBTQ+ protesters outside an event Latham was speaking at shortly before the NSW election.
In response, Latham said “disgusting?”, and made comments about a sexual act that the Guardian has chosen not to publish in full.
The initial tweet attracted widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, including the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and One Nation’s federal leader, Pauline Hanson, who called for Latham to apologise.
During the hearings, the court heard that Greenwich had suffered panic attacks and contemplated leaving public life after Latham’s initial tweet and subsequent media appearances.
The Sydney MP’s barrister, Matthew Collins KC, told the court Greenwich’s office staff had also been taught by police how to handle suspicious mail amid a “torrent of hate” from members of the public.
Collins told the court that despite the tweet being deleted by Latham after two hours and 20 minutes, “the course of Mr Greenwich’s life changed”.
Latham’s barrister, Kieran Smark SC, argued that people who made derogatory comments online after Latham’s tweet already felt negatively about Greenwich.
“Mr Latham’s tweet may have wounded Mr Greenwich, but it didn’t wound his reputation,” Smark told the court in May.
Smark said his client’s words were “offensive and crass and vulgar” but questioned if they met the threshold for serious harm.
He said that the overwhelming response to the post had been highly critical of Latham and supportive of Greenwich.
