Peter Dutton defamation ‘free speech threat’
A refugee advocate who is being sued for defamation by Peter Dutton has accused the MP of threatening free speech by using defamation laws to ‘stifle the expression of a public opinion’.
A refugee advocate being sued for defamation by Defence Minister Peter Dutton has accused the MP of threatening free speech in Australia by using defamation laws to “stifle the expression of a public opinion”.
Mr Dutton, who has previously extracted an apology from Greens senator Larissa Waters over a similar tweet, began legal action against Shane Bazzi last week over a tweet that labelled him a “rape apologist”.
The tweet, on February 25, was posted alongside a link to a Guardian Australia article reporting Mr Dutton’s suggestion in 2019 that some women on Nauru “claimed they’ve been raped” in order to secure a medical transfer to Australia for an abortion because the service was unavailable on the island nation.
On Tuesday, lawyer Peter O’Brien said Mr Bazzi would “vigorously defend” the proceedings, claiming Mr Dutton’s decision to sue over an “opinion” raised “genuine concerns about freedom of speech in Australia”.
“Mr Bazzi expressed an honest opinion on Twitter that Peter Dutton was a ‘rape apologist’,” Mr O’Brien said in a statement. “This opinion was based on a number of publicly reported statements … attributed to Mr Dutton — statements that were about matters in the public interest and that would undoubtedly provoke a number of different opinions, including that expressed by Mr Bazzi.
“While there must be some limits to that freedom, we will always defend the right of people to hold opinions, especially against politicians. Those who are elected to public office must expect to be subject to adverse opinions, and society is entitled to expect a greater level of tolerance from such persons.”
Mr Dutton told 2GB in March he was prepared to “sue” anyone who defamed him on Twitter, after he said he hadn’t been “provided with the ‘she said, he said’ details” of the sexual assault allegation involving Brittany Higgins, who alleged she was raped by a former Liberal staffer in Parliament House in March 2019.
“Some of these people who are trending on Twitter or have the anonymity of different Twitter accounts, they’re out there putting all these statements and tweets that are frankly defamatory (and) I’m going to start to pick out some of them to sue,” Mr Dutton said.
Senator Waters issued an apology last month over a February 25 tweet in which she accused Mr Dutton of being a “sexist rape apologist” for his comments about Ms Higgins’ rape allegation as being “she said, he said”.
Mr Bazzi used the same language as Senator Waters in his February 25 tweet.
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