Lawyers for John Barilaro, FriendlyJordies lock horns in defamation court
John Barilaro’s lawyers have told a court that barely a line in comedian FriendlyJordies’ defence will survive their ‘wholesale attack’ in the Deputy Premier’s defamation suit.
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NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says comedian FriendlyJordies’ legal defence would not survive a “wholesale attack” during the first court hearing for the defamation case.
It comes as the NSW Nationals leader prepares to sue tech giant Google for hosting the comedian’s videos.
Mr Barilaro is suing Jordan Shanks, known as FriendlyJordies, over two videos which he says are “vile and racist” and defamed him.
Specifically, Mr Barilaro’s lawyers say in documents, Mr Shanks portrayed the politician as a “corrupt conman” who “committed perjury nine times” and should be locked up.
Mr Shanks’ legal team this week filed his defence, arguing his videos are substantially true and express an honest opinion.
Mr Shanks’ barrister, Matthew Collins QC, told the Federal Court on Friday he would seek a jury trial, which is almost unheard of in Federal Court defamation cases.
But Mr Barilaro’s barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, said the move was premature because the comedian’s defence barely had a paragraph in it that would survive.
“We are making a wholesale attack,” she told the court.
Ms Chrysanthou honed in on what she called a “complete failure” to spell out the particulars of the perjury allegations.
Mr Shanks’s lawyers said, in documents, that they were unable to fully particularise the perjury allegation because it related to comments Mr Barilaro made under parliamentary privilege.
They have requested Mr Barilaro ask NSW parliament to waive his privilege quickly, but there was no indication on Friday that would happen.
The Deputy Premier also objected to Mr Shanks’ defence being filed three days late.
A hearing to determine if the late defence can be accepted, and whether parts of Mr Barilaro’s case should be struck out because of parliamentary privilege, will take place later this month.
The court also heard Mr Barilaro was now permitted to serve the lawsuit on Google, which hosts Mr Shanks’ videos on its platform YouTube for his hundreds of thousands of viewers.
The comedian’s defence cites numerous examples of what he says justifies the corruption comments.
Chiefly is Mr Barilaro’s involvement in a $47 million arts grant project in 2018-19.
Mr Shanks’ lawyers argue, in their defence, that $44 million of the grants went to Coalition electorates.
“Well my name is John Barilaro, call me Pork-Barilaro, and I have no apology because at the end of the day I will stand up and fight for our communities,” Mr Barilaro is quoted in the defence.
Mr Shanks’ documents go on to argue the contextual truth of other comments — including that Mr Barilaro blamed NSW Parks and Wildlife for the Black Summer bushfires while bearing responsibility for cutting funding.
The document also says the politician holidayed in London instead of returning to manage the response to the fires, failed to disclose Airbnb income, and opposed a brumbie cull despite knowing they were damaging the environment of Kosciuszko.
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