Sophie Mirabella awarded $175,000 in damages after she was defamed by regional paper

Former federal Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has been awarded significant damages after she was defamed by a regional Victorian newspaper.

Former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella leaves the Melbourne county court after the hearing for damges in the defamation lawsuit. Picture: Aaron Francis

Former federal Liberal politician Sophie Mirabella has been awarded $175,000 in damages after she was defamed by a regional Victorian newspaper.

Ms Mirabella successfully sued the weekly newspaper The Benalla Ensign and its editor Libby Price this year over an article that claimed the former MP had pushed another politician out of the way during a photo opportunity.

County Court Judge Michael Macnamara delivered the damages judgment in Melbourne on Wednesday, awarding Ms Mirabella $175,000 over the April 2016 article.

Ms Mirabella’s barrister, Georgina Schoff, had earlier told Victoria’s County Court her ­client deserved up to $400,000 for the harm and distress the report had caused.

The court heard that the maximum damages a person can be awarded for non-economic losses is $389,500.

Ms Schoff said Ms Mirabella should get maximum damages because the Ensign article was republished by other media outlets.

The Ensign’s lawyer, David Gilbertson, had told the court the accusations were at the “lower end” of defamations and damages “should be well under $100,000”.

The win came nearly two years after the article said she pushed the sitting MP, Cathy McGowan, out of a photo opportunity with Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt. Ms Mirabella lost her seat to Ms McGowan in 2013.

Ms Mirabella told the five-day trial the April 2016 article had a devastating personal impact.

It was published before a federal election when she had hoped to win back the seat of Indi from the incumbent, Ms McGowan.

The article, titled Awkward Encounter, claimed Ms Mirabella had pushed Ms McGowan out of the way during a photo opportunity.

Months later, the newspaper admitted the push did not occur and apologised, but by then the election had passed and Ms Mirabella said the damage to her character had been done. Costs will be determined next Thursday.

With AAP