Federal Court orders Andrew Laming pay $20,000 for Facebook posts after AEC action

Former federal MP Andrew Laming has 28 days to pay the fine after the Federal Court ruled he broke electoral rules ahead of the 2019 election.

Former Liberal MP Andrew Laming. Picture: John Feder

The Federal Court has ruled former federal MP Andrew Laming broke electoral rules ahead of the 2019 federal election by making unauthorised and “misleading” Facebook posts, ordering he pay $20,000 to the commonwealth government in 28 days.

Dr Laming has said he will appeal.

In December 2021, the Australian Electoral Commission launched court proceedings against Dr Laming “alleging he failed to authorise Facebook posts leading up to the 2019 federal election”.

“The AEC alleges that Dr Laming published unauthorised electoral matter in the form of a Facebook page, ‘Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding’ and that this contravened the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 requirement that material promoting one candidate or political party over another comply with the authorisation requirements of the Act,” the AEC said at the time.

On Wednesday morning, Federal Court judge Darryl Rangiah found Dr Laming had contravened the electoral act on three occasions in 2018 and 2019, and ordered he pay three separate fines to the Commonwealth within 28 days.

Dr Laming told The Australian he was disappointed by the outcome. He said he would read the decision and appeal.

Justice Rangiah found the former politician contravened the Commonwealth Electoral Act by “posting electoral matter on the “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” Facebook page on 24 December 2018, 7 February 2019 and 5 May 2019 without ensuring that his name and the town or city in which he lives were notified in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Electoral (Authorisation of Voter Communication) Determination 2018”.

In his written reasons, Justice Rangiah noted that on the first day of the hearing last year, Dr Laming “terminated his lawyers’ retainers and chose to represent himself”.

The judge said the then-MP was the administrator of the “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” Facebook page. In one of the offending posts, Dr Laming wrote a post “referring to himself in the third person, stating that he had “boosted” funding of the Redland Hospital by $77 million”.

Justice Rangiah said this post was “particularly serious”.

“It was not merely a case of Mr Laming omitting to notify his name and relevant town or city, but a deliberate attempt to disguise the fact that he was its author,” the judge said.

“Misleading conduct of that kind strikes at the core of the integrity of our electoral system. It is conduct of that kind that s 321D(5) especially seeks to prevent.”

“On 7 February 2019 he posted an image, and wrote an accompanying caption, comparing the federal funding for “Metro South Health” provided under the LNP with that provided under the ALP,” the judgement said.

“On 5 May 2019 he posted a table setting out National Health Reform payments to Metro South Hospital and Health Service, between 2017 and 2018, by both the Commonwealth Government and the Queensland Government. He also wrote the accompanying caption: “Know anyone supporting Labor. Send them this”.”

Only 28 people saw the offending posts, the judgement said.

“Further, I do not regard this as a case where the contraventions occurred in a systemic or organised way. Where the offending communication of electoral matter is systemic, organised and calculated to reach a mass audience, substantially higher penalties may be warranted,” Justice Rangiah said.

The judge flagged it was possible Dr Laming may “re-enter the political arena, I accept that he is unlikely to engage in similar conduct in the future, so the need for similar deterrence is limited”.

There were two other posts, that Justice Rangiah found were not “electoral matter,” including one where he said in the third person “Anyone see Bowman MP on tellie his (sic) week. He just ripped Labor a new one over the Hospital”.

Dr Laming was disendorsed by the Liberal National Party ahead of the 2022 election, after being an MP for 18 years. He had denied a spate of harassment allegations and was ordered to do empathy training by then-PM Scott Morrison.

At the time, Dr Laming denied harassing women constituents and political rivals online, saying his “hard questions” had been “reinvented” as harassment.

He later won a defamation action against the Nine Network which reported he had taken an “upskirting” photo of a young female worker at a business in his electorate without her consent.

Following the defamation win, Dr Laming secured an apology and a confidential financial settlement from Nine over the network’s reporting, which included the harassment allegations.

After the settlement, Dr Laming said Nine had “dropped all of its defences” to his claim, and said that “the stream of bizarre allegations came from political critics”.

He has now nominated for preselection for the LNP in the state seat of Oodgeroo, where sitting MP Mark Robinson is retiring.

Dr Laming will face off against former LNP senator Amanda Stoker and ordained Anglican priest and communications adviser Daniel Hobbs.