‘I’ll never see a cent’: $500k for Jabba the Hutt defamation stoush

A legal stoush over a Jabba the Hutt Facebook post has ended with a former Local Government of Queensland Association boss being awarded more than $500,000 in damages.

Greg Hallam. Pic: supplied.

Former Local Government of Queensland Association boss Greg Hallam has been awarded more than $500,000 in damages for defamation after being likened to Star Wars villain Jabba the Hutt in Facebook posts.

Mr Hallam, who retired in 2021 after almost 30 years in the role, sued Cairns City Councillor and former state MP Rob Pyne and Tablelands resident Lyn O’Connor for defamation after a series of Facebook posts dating back to 2017.

They included a cartoon on Mr Pyne’s Facebook page depicting Mr Hallam as Jabba the Hutt.

In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, District Court judge Dean Morzone KC found in Mr Hallam’s favour and awarded him more than $503,000 in damages.

Judge Morzone found that the veteran local government official had been defamed by imputations including that he was corrupt.

Jabba The Hutt first appeared in the Star Wars film franchise in 1997. A meme of Jabba the Hutt wearing a T-shirt with 'LGAQ' on it has become infamous and former LGAQ chief executive sued for defamation over it. Picture: Supplied.

The judge said Mr Pyne had argued that the cartoon depicted a cane toad and references to “the establishment” were directed at government leaders, not Mr Hallam.

“Mr Pyne) confirmed that he was “now” aware that the role which Jabba the Hutt played in the Star Wars movie franchise was as “a corrupt and criminal villain”, “a baddie” and a pretty negative person …,” Judge Morzone said in his judgment.

Rob Pyne and Lyn Kennedy (O'Conner). Picture: Peter Carruthers

“Instead, he attributed the caricature as depicting a cane toad being a notorious pest in Queensland and associated with representative sporting teams, and other Queensland figures.”

But the judge said the “catchy meme” was likely to be read and understood by ordinary readers as referring to Mr Hallam.

“The caricature visually parodied the plaintiff, who appeared as a witness and exhibited similar physical features,” he said.

Greg Hallam. Picture: Brendan Radke

Judge Morzone rejected alleged defamatory imputations that Mr Hallam was “a powerful crime boss” who operated through the LGAQ as “a cartel, a profitable criminal empire”.

The judge found Mr Hallam’s psychiatric condition – including major depression with anxious distress “manifested by psychotic dreams, nightmares and thoughts of death or suicide” – was “materially caused by the defamatory publications”.

“Additionally, the plaintiff also suffered other physical health deficits for at least five years and eight months, for which the defendants are responsible,” he found.

Judge Morzone said Mr Hallam had obtained a default judgment against Ms O’Connor in 2020 over 36 defamatory publications.

He awarded a total of $346,131.51 in damages against Ms O’Connor and $157,261,41 against Mr Pyne, plus Mr Hallam’s costs.

He also ordered Ms O’Connor be permanently restrained from publishing further defamatory material.

In a Facebook post about the judgment, Mr Hallam said he “will never see a cent”.

“I won’t be making any further comment,” he wrote.

Mr Pyne told The Courier-Mail he had “no hard feelings” about the judgment but would consider an appeal.

“The judge had no choice but to apply the laws that were in operation at the time,” he said.

He said he could not afford to pay the damages because he was “a socialist and not really into the accumulation of wealth, to be honest”.

Mr Pyne said the LGAQ had spent more than $1m funding the defamation action and claimed it would be up to them whether he was pushed into bankruptcy and potentially forced to resign from Cairns Regional Council.

Originally published as ‘I’ll never see a cent’: $500k for Jabba the Hutt defamation stoush