Ralph Carr sued for defamation over social media posts
Ralph Carr is facing a legal battle after he tweeted allegations of corruption over Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine scheme.
Victoria
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Dustin Martin’s manager Ralph Carr is being sued for defamation over social media posts he wrote about the state government’s botched hotel quarantine program.
The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court by former Victorian Labor Party vice-president Henry Pinskier.
The case was based on posts Mr Carr made on his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts alleging “corruption” from the Andrews government in giving a contract to Dr Pinskier.
Mr Carr’s tweet from September 22 made reference to Dr Pinskier getting a “facial recognition contract”, which he wrote was “Andrews corruption at its best”.
The post included a screenshot of a tweet by user @RohanCT that said: “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.”
A writ filed by Dr Pinskier’s lawyers said the tweet was defamatory because it could be understood to mean Dr Pinskier “was responsible for the COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine in Victoria, and thereby caused the second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria”.
The writ argued the tweets could also be understood to mean he “acted improperly in obtaining the hotel security contract for hotel quarantine in Victoria in that he used his influence in the Labor Party and his daughter’s employment with the Premier, Daniel Andrews, in order to obtain the hotel security contract for his company without a tender.”
The writ also referenced the screenshot of the same tweet Mr Carr shared on his LinkedIn account, with a caption that included the words #corruption and #nepotism.
Dr Pinskier’s lawyers argued Mr Carr shared the posts “without an honest belief of the truth of the imputations complained of, or alternatively, with reckless indifference as to whether the imputations conveyed by them were true or false”.
The writ said Dr Pinskier was seeking aggravated damages.
“As a result of the publication of the tweet, the plaintiff (Dr Pinskier) has been seriously injured his personal and professional reputation, and has suffered hurt, distress, embarrassment and humiliation, and has thereby suffered and will continue to suffer loss and damage,” the writ said.
Dr Pinskier and his brother Henry co-own the Medi7 group, which was given the contract for medical services in hotel quarantine during its first month of operation.
The brothers are both long-time members of the ALP in which Henry Pinskier served as vice-president in the 2000s.
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