Dustin Martin’s manager Ralph Carr suffers new blow in government defamation spat
The manager of Tigers star Dustin Martin is facing a new blow to his defence in a defamation spat over government “corruption” claims.
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The manager of Richmond great Dustin Martin has suffered a blow to his defence in a defamation spat over government “corruption” claims.
Agent to the stars Ralph Carr has been taken to the Supreme Court over online posts about Labor Party figure Dr Henry Pinskier’s company being awarded Hotel Quarantine contracts.
Mr Carr argued that two social media posts on September 22, where he republished a comment on a Parliamentary debate over the contracts and added his own commentary, were his honest opinion.
Mr Carr retweeted @RohanCT’s comment: “Watching the Victorian debate in parliament. So it turns out Henry Pinskier’s company was awarded the hotel quarantine security tender without a formal tender. He is a factional member of the Macnamara ALP branch and his daughter works for Daniel Andrews.”
Mr Carr added the comment: “This Pinskier guy also got the face recognition contract in Victoria ... Andrews corruption at its best.”
In a pre-trial decision, Associate Justice John Efthim struck out Mr Carr’s defence of honest opinion, stating it wasn’t “clear as to what the honest opinion is and the plaintiff has
a right to know”.
However, Mr Efthim ruled Mr Carr could re-plead his case.
Defences of innocent dissemination and contextual truth were to be left for the jury to rule on.
A mitigation of damages defence was also struck out “as it makes no sense”, with Mr Carr allowed re-plead.
Referring to mitigation of damages, the ruling stated Mr Carr had discovered that Dr Pinskier had brought other action over similar publications, and had reached settlements.
Dr Pinskier argues he was defamed because Mr Carr suggested he used his Labor Party influence and daughter’s connection to the Premier to win contracts, and was responsible for the Hotel Quarantine outbreak that caused the deadly second COVID-19 wave.
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