The offensive tweet set to cost Mark Latham more than $500,000

Former NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham is on the hook for more than half a million dollars in legal costs and damages over a defamatory tweet about Sydney MP Alex Greenwich.

In a decision last year, the Federal Court awarded Greenwich $140,000 in damages over a highly graphic and offensive comment posted on Twitter, now X, in March 2023.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich (left) and Mark Latham.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Greenwich’s barrister, Dr Matt Collins, KC, told the court that the tweet, which described sexual activity in graphic and offensive terms that The Sydney Morning Herald has chosen not to publish, was a “vile, homophobic attack” on the openly gay Greenwich.

Federal Court Justice David O’Callaghan on Friday ordered Latham to pay Greenwich’s legal costs of the defamation case on the ordinary basis, which results in the successful party recouping about 70 per cent of their bills. The independent Sydney MP’s costs have been estimated at more than $600,000.

The parties had engaged in a protracted legal fight over costs following the judgment last year, as Latham resisted paying the bulk of Greenwich’s costs.

Latham’s legal team had submitted he should be ordered to pay only one quarter of Greenwich’s costs on a party-party basis because Greenwich had not succeeded in every part of his case.

O’Callaghan found Latham’s subsequent comments to The Daily Telegraph, which were also part of the lawsuit, did not convey the defamatory meanings Greenwich alleged.

But Collins submitted that “Mr Latham overwhelmingly failed in this case” and he was “not the three-quarters winner”.

O’Callaghan said Collins’ submissions “are irresistible, and they must be accepted”.

The judge declined to order Latham to pay Greenwich’s costs on an indemnity basis, which would have covered a higher proportion of his legal bill.

He said he was “not persuaded that it was unreasonable for Mr Latham to reject the offer” in a concerns notice sent to him by Greenwich’s lawyers before the lawsuit was launched, which had sought $20,000 and an apology and retraction of the Twitter and Telegraph comments.

“It is true that, in the events that occurred, he now has an obligation to pay a much larger sum of money ... But the DT quotes were not defamatory, and the claim in respect of them was a significant part of the concerns notice.”

Greenwich said on Friday: “I tried to resolve the matter without it proceeding to court. I took this action to stand up for myself, the LGBTQ community, and in defence of appropriate discourse in my profession.”

Latham appeared recently on Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham’s political podcast, Into the Weeds, and made comments about Greenwich’s sex life.

Greenwich said the comments caused him distress. He asked Buckingham for the comments to be removed from the recording and Buckingham agreed.

Latham, now an independent MP in NSW’s upper house, has filed an appeal against the defamation decision. Greenwich filed a cross-appeal.

The tweet led One Nation founder Pauline Hanson to remove Latham, a former federal Labor leader, as the party’s parliamentary leader.