It’s been more than two years since Bruce Lehrmann filed a defamation suit in the federal court, sparking a high-profile trial which made Justice Michael Lee somewhat of a legal celebrity. But the man with the much-admired turn of phrase was “not going to have any further disputation” when asked to rule this week on whether Network Ten should pay Lisa Wilkinson’s legal costs.
“I’m not having anything more to do with it,” Lee told counsel for Network Ten and Wilkinson on Wednesday. “I’m finished with this matter.”
After all, he presided over a five-week trial that was livestreamed on YouTube, listened to dozens of witnesses, examined hundreds of exhibits and wrote a 324 page judgment.
So why was he back in court with the two respondents, who had after all won the case?
Although the parties agreed to settle Wilkinson’s legal costs for separate representation at the trial for $1.15m, the former Project host now wanted Ten to pay the legal costs of months of arguing over costs. Clearly irritated, Lee said each party should pay their own costs.
“For the purposes of bringing this longstanding matter to its final conclusion and sparing both myself and the court being required to have any further involvement at this stage of the judicial hierarchy,” Lee said. I will “make no orders as to cost”.
“I do not find either party acted unreasonably, but this is not the same as concluding each party acted equally reasonably in engaging with the process.
“Given the nature of the dispute, it is regrettable it took so long for Ms Wilkinson to make an offer which, even when it came, would, even if accepted, have perpetuated an aspect of disputation.
“Hopefully, now that this has been resolved, some element of common sense can break out between the parties …,” he said.
While Lee has now exited, the Lehrmann v Ten and Wilkinson matter is under appeal and several other legal actions emerging from the Lehrmann case continue.
This week the former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff was found to have engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” by the ACT integrity commission, which reviewed his inquiry into the prosecution of Lehrmann.
A trove of emails and text messages revealed the Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen and Sofronoff had 273 interactions over the inquiry’s seven months, including 51 phone calls, text messages, emails and a private lunch meeting in Brisbane. The former judge also spent seven and a half hours on the phone to the Australian during the inquiry, many of which were with Albrechtsen.
In a fresh legal action filed this week, Soffronoff has asked the federal court to overturn the corruption findings against him.
Bad language
Tony Armstrong released a satirical video targeting racism on his Instagram account on Friday. It’s a sketch about a faux grammar app, Furore, for “keeping racists safe online by helping them spell their outbursts correctly”.
The Indigenous presenter introduced the video with the words: “Hey racists, we’ve tried to make sure you feel represented in this video. If not we’ll try again in the next one. Fuck racism, Tony.”
“Don’t you think that if you reckon another culture or race is inferior, the least you could do is convey that belief through the bare minimum grammatical standards of the colonial language that you’re using,” Armstrong says in the video, which portrays a white man being mocked online for misspelling a racist comment.
The Gamilaroi man has been open about the racist attacks he has received, sharing some of them on his Instagram account last year.
In 2022 the ABC notified police over a racist email sent to the then Breakfast co-host after he was critical of the mining magnate Gina Rinehart for not disavowing her father’s racism towards Indigenous people.
“This shit has gotta stop,” he said on X. “One thing is for certain though, this isn’t guna stop us speaking up or stepping up. Sent to my work email, no less.”
Coming out swinging
The former editor-in-chief of the Australian Chris Mitchell has written a media column since he retired in 2015. He is usually laser-focused on the perceived failings of leftwing journalists, in particular on the ABC, or on how the climate emergency is overblown.
But this week he wrote a column about golf, which had nothing to do with the media. We kept reading and there was no link with the media at all.
But that wasn’t even the weirdest thing about it.
“This column plays golf three times a week,” Mitchell, who refers to himself in the third person as “this column”, wrote.
Surprise tackle in AFL broadcast
When AFL No 1 pick Sam Lalor was celebrating a strong performance in his first game, the television audience was shown a little more of the 18-year-old than expected.
Lalor took it in his stride, posting on Instagram: “What a night. Thanks @richmond_fc for the opportunity, keen for many more to come”, along with an eggplant emoji.
He later said on a podcast that although pretty much everyone had seen the footage, it was “pretty funny to be honest”.
“I just took it in my stride, I couldn’t really care less, I think it’s funny as,“ Lalor said.
His good humour has been rewarded by a big package of goods from an underwear manufacturer.
“You probably heard about Sammy’s great Round 1 debut last Thursday and the not so great situation where his boys were not secure during his goal celebration,” Bonds said on Instagram.
“His teammate Tim has been kind enough to give us a shout out, so we thought why not reach out to Sammy and make sure he’s secure for the next time he hits the field and give him some Bonds trunks.”
Shifts snipped
When Australian Associated Press started rolling out some changes recently to the way the wire service’s freelance photographers were renumerated, they were not happy.
Instead of being paid for a full day’s work for a sporting fixture, they would be given a half day, or four hours work, under a “revised agreement”. Sources say covering a fixture is more than just the elapsed time of the game; it’s a full day’s work.
According to an email seen by Weekly Beast, AAP has since clarified the arrangement.
Each assignment across news and sport will be assessed individually and the majority will be a full day shift.
However, if a photographer secures a full day assignment they “may be required to cover news and stock visual content where warranted”.
“Some of you have come back to us stipulating that you are willing to do a 4 hour shift for news but not for sports and we appreciate that this is your decision,” an email to freelancers said.
“Every freelancer is entitled to indicate your shift preferences and we will continue to work with you in the commissioning phase.”
The AAP chief executive, Lisa Davies, told Weekly Beast the half day rate for freelancers had been increased.
“AAP is relied upon by hundreds of subscribers to deliver an extraordinary breadth of news and sport coverage from across Australia, while at the same time building on its extensive photo library to meet an increasing demand for high-quality stock images,” she said.
“I am pleased AAP is increasing the half day rate for photographic shifts and our image team will continue to provide a range of options for work to our comprehensive freelance network.”
News Corp settles with former bikie
The News Corp tabloids have reached a confidential settlement with former Hells Angels motorcycle club member Angelo Pandeli after a series of reports called him the country’s “number-one cocaine kingpin”. All the articles, podcasts and videos, which Pandeli said in his defamation claim caused him distress and embarrassment, have been removed.
“Angelo Pandeli began defamation proceedings in January against the publishers of Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph and The Advertiser over a series of articles, podcasts and videos in 2024,” a joint statement by the parties said.
“The matter has now been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties. Mr Pandeli has informed the publishers that the articles, podcasts and videos contained false information. On that basis, Nationwide News Pty Limited, The Herald and Weekly Times Pty Ltd and Advertiser Newspapers Pty Ltd have agreed to remove the articles, podcasts and videos that were the subject of the claim.”
