Peter Dutton tells court ‘rape apologist’ tweet a level above other online criticism

Peter Dutton has taken the witness stand to explain why he is suing a refugee activist over a single deleted tweet.

Federal frontbencher Peter Dutton has told a court he is no stranger to online criticism, but a tweet labelling him a rape apologist “went to a different level”.

The Defence Minister is suing refugee activist Shane Bazzi for defamation over the since-deleted tweet, posted on February 25 and stating “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist”.

Mr Dutton told the court on Wednesday he was “deeply offended” by the tweet and, despite having never sued anybody for defamation before, it spurred him into action.

“I thought it was hurtful and I took particular exception to it,” he said.

The member for Dickson, who is seeking aggravated damages, contends the tweet falsely painted him as someone who condones and excuses rape.

But Mr Bazzi says he didn’t suggest that at all.

“Thankfully, words do not mean what we choose them to mean, to paraphrase Lewis Carroll,” Mr Bazzi’s barrister Richard Potter SC told the Federal Court on Wednesday.

“Words must be interpreted as to their meaning within the context they were made.”

Peter Dutton says he was “deeply offended” by a tweet stating he was a rape apologist. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

That context, the court heard, includes a 2019 Guardian Australia article about Mr Dutton’s comments on refugee and asylum seeker women detained on Nauru, which Mr Bazzi linked to in his tweet.

The average person scrolling Twitter would not only read the words “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist”, but also the Guardian headline and summary, Mr Potter said.

“(They) would see from the whole of those words that Mr Dutton was actually accusing women in refugee centres on Nauru of lying about their claims that they’d being raped,” he said.

“Mr Dutton was saying they were telling lies about being raped so they could get out of the refugee centres on Nauru and come to Australia for an abortion.

“If Mr Dutton was said to be accusing women of lying about being raped, how could Mr Bazzi’s phrase mean that Mr Dutton was condoning rape or even excusing it?”

Another vital piece of context, Mr Potter said, was the fact Mr Dutton had given a press conference that morning related to Brittany Higgins’ allegation that she was raped in Parliament House in 2019.

In the press conference, Mr Dutton said he was not provided with the “he said, she said” details of the Higgins investigation, a comment that generated “substantial media coverage”.

Mr Potter suggested the ordinary reader of Mr Bazzi’s tweet — a hypothetical person, whose shoes judges must force on when adjudicating on defamation cases — might have thought Mr Dutton’s statements about women on Nauru “reflected a certain cold detachment or lack of empathy”.

But they would not have concluded he condones rape, Mr Potter said.

Mr Dutton’s barrister Nick Ferrett QC said the meaning of Mr Bazzi’s tweet was clear, and his words deliberately chosen.

“Instead of saying ‘he doesn’t pay sufficient regard to allegations of rape’, he said ‘Peter Dutton is a rape apologist’,” Mr Ferrett told the court.

The refugee rights campaigner chose words that were “more impactful, and more hyperbolic and more serious” in order to engage the reader, the barrister argued.

Mr Ferrett said Mr Dutton had been on the receiving end of “more than a few unpleasant observations” across his 20 years in politics.

But the minister’s past life as a Queensland police officer, especially his time investigating rape allegations on the sex offender squad, meant Mr Bazzi’s tweet stung.

Mr Dutton told the court he took the issue of sexual violence against women and children “very seriously” and it had been a focus during his time as home affairs minister.

He said being criticised was part of the “rough and tumble” of holding the emotional, high-stakes home affairs portfolio, but Mr Bazzi’s tweet was beyond the pale.

The cabinet minister said, twice, that some critics engage constructively but others “lack the wit or intellect” to do so and resort to profanity.

Mr Dutton agreed he did not discover Mr Bazzi’s tweet until after he had extracted an apology over a similar statement from Greens senator Larissa Waters on March 24.

But he insisted he was hurt and offended afresh by Mr Bazzi’s post.

Mr Bazzi is also arguing defences of honest opinion and qualified privilege, which requires someone to have acted reasonably in publishing information in the public interest.

He raised more than $150,000 in a public appeal to fund his defence.

Justice Richard White, who has previously urged the parties to settle the case, again remarked he thought it should have been “capable of resolution”.

“There are risks on both sides,” he said at the outset.

“As I said once before, I don’t think this is the largest or one of the larger defamation cases the Federal Court has had.”

The hearing continues.

Originally published as Peter Dutton tells court ‘rape apologist’ tweet a level above other online criticism