Christian Porter joins Mick Gatto’s legal team in defamation case against the ABC
Former attorney-general Christian Porter will represent Melbourne underworld identity Mick Gatto in his bid to take his defamation case against the ABC to the High Court.
Former attorney-general Christian Porter will represent Melbourne underworld identity Mick Gatto in his bid to take his defamation case against the ABC to the High Court.
Mr Gatto, 66, claims he was defamed by the national broadcaster in 2019, when a news report implied he was a “hit man” and “murderer”, and falsely suggested he had threatened to kill gangland lawyer turned police informer Nicola Gobbo.
Mr Gatto’s decision to draft Mr Porter — who has returned to private legal practice following his retirement from politics at the recent election — is particularly noteworthy given the ex-attorney-general’s own battles with the ABC in the courts.
Mr Porter sued the ABC last year following the publication of an article that identified historical rape allegations against an unnamed cabinet minister.
The former attorney-general subsequently named himself as the minister in question but vehemently denied the allegations.
Mr Porter discontinued the case in May 2021, after which he said that the ABC had been forced into a “humiliating backdown” over the “one-sided” story.
It was later revealed the ABC agreed to pay $100,000 in mediation costs relating to the legal action.
Weeks after the case was discontinued, ABC managing director David Anderson told a Senate hearing that the public broadcaster stood by the story.
“The ABC has not issued an apology, the ABC stands by its journalism, the article in question remains online, it remains unchanged and available for everyone to see it,” he said.
The Victorian Supreme Court dismissed Mr Gatto’s initial defamation case in February last year, and a subsequent challenge in the Victorian Court of Appeal was also tossed out.
Mr Gatto has since applied for special leave to appeal to the High Court.
Mr Porter will work on Mr Gatto’s case alongside barristers Guy Reynolds and Daniel Ward.
‘This case was never about me’: Lattouf defiant after ABC court case
Antoinette Lattouf said her unlawful termination suit against the ABC had been ‘the most difficult period of my life’ after the case wrapped up in the federal court | WATCH
Lattouf treated differently to ABC’s Tingle, Karvelas: lawyer
Antoinette Lattouf’s lawyers argue her ‘unprecedented’ dismissal was based on a ‘stereotyped assumption’ not applied to other ABC presenters like Laura Tingle and Patricia Karvelas.