Northern Beaches Deputy Mayor Candy Bingham’s defamation battle with former Manly Council GM
DEPUTY Mayor of the Northern Beaches Council, Candy Bingham, has apologised to the former general manager of Manly Council Henry Wong as part of a defamation settlement.
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DEPUTY Mayor of the Northern Beaches Council, Candy Bingham, has apologised to the former general manager of Manly Council Henry Wong as part of a defamation settlement.
Mr Wong attempted to sue Ms Bingham over a number of comments made at council meetings and articles she wrote on her Good for Manly website.
However, the matter was settled last month as part of a confidential agreement before the matter was heard in court.
Ms Bingham told the Manly Daily: “It is important that the community understands that comments made on Facebook and websites can be defamatory and under the current laws the site that those comments appear on are the responsibility of the publisher of those sites.”
Ms Bingham declined to comment any further.
Ms Bingham, a former Manly councillor, was opposed to a polarising project to build a carpark under Manly Oval.
It would have been built at the expense of a public carpark and library in Whistler St, which was to become units, retail space and a public library with panoramic views of Manly Cove.
A number of the comments were made at an August 8 meeting of Northern Beaches Council after a merger of Manly, Warringah and Pittwater councils.
At that meeting then-administrator Dick Persson cancelled the Manly Oval Carpark and Whistler St projects using the contents of two audits into the projects.
That cancellation is the subject of a more than $74 million legal suit being lodged against Northern Beaches Council by the successful tenderers for the Whistler St carpark.
On April 8 last year, Ms Bingham spoke on the night and was cautioned by Mr Persson that she did not have parliamentary privilege.
The Manly Daily has chosen not to publish her comments made on the night.
She also published a number of articles on her website, Good for Manly, which have since been removed.
The same website issued an apology earlier this week titled “Apology to Henry Wong”.
“On 26 November 2016 and 27 April 2017, Candy Bingham published certain articles, and comments by others, about Henry Wong on the Good for Manly website,” the statement read.
“On 8 August 2017, at a meeting of the Northern Beaches Council, Candy Bingham made certain statements about Henry Wong.
“Candy Bingham unreservedly apologises to Henry Wong for the distress caused to him and his family by those statements, articles and comments and has duly withdrawn the offending materials from the Good For Manly website.
“This apology is made as part of a confidential settlement of defamation proceedings brought by Henry Wong against Candy Bingham.”