Mark Dreyfus considers libel law reform

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says he is open to discussing a nationally consistent approach to defamation reforms ahead of his first roundtable with state and territory counterparts.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Picture: AAP

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says he is open to discussing a nationally consistent approach to defamation reforms ahead of his first roundtable with state and territory counterparts on Friday, amid a push to stop ­plaintiffs forum-shopping across ­jurisdictions.

A known advocate of press freedoms and defamation reform, Mr Dreyfus will receive briefings from NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman, who has spearheaded a push to update the laws for the first time since 2005. The meeting comes after several states introduced staged reforms to reduce payouts, cut trivial claims by introducing a “serious harm” threshold and better protect “public interest” journalism.

NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia have passed model provisions for reform, but national unity for the proposal is at risk with West Australia having failed to guarantee its willingness to proceed in line with other jurisdictions.

Under the changes, plaintiffs must notify publications which statements they allege to be defamatory and detail the serious harm caused before legal action is taken, while corporations need to prove they sustained serious financial loss, or were likely to, because of the publication.

The second stage of reforms is to examine how liable platforms such as Google, Facebook and Twitter should be for defamatory publications of a third party, with Mr Speakman arguing that defamation laws were drafted when “social media was in its infancy and trolls were confined to children’s books”.

Speaking to The Australian on Tuesday, Mr Speakman said: “I look forward to updating ­attorneys-general on the two NSW-led projects – Stage 2 Part A model defamation reforms, which are well-advanced, and a nationally consistent access scheme for digital records after death or incapacity.”

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman will on Friday raise concerns about federal laws that threaten doctors with hefty fines for giving advice to patients about voluntary assisted dying.