Vic Lib forced to apologise, settle over ‘smear’ of LNP member in Age article

Upper house deputy leader Matt Bach had to settle after accusing senior LNP member Dan Ryan, a lawyer and director of a Brisbane-based think tank, of ‘race-baiting’.

Victorian Liberal upper house deputy leader Matt Bach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

A member of John Pesutto’s Victorian Liberal leadership team has been forced to reach a financial settlement and publicly apologise to a Brisbane lawyer, think-tank director and senior LNP member, after being accused of defaming him.

Upper house deputy leader Matt Bach has covered Dan Ryan’s legal costs and issued a formal apology, after penning an article in The Age accusing the Mandarin-speaker and former Australia-China Council board member of “odious race-baiting”.

The settlement and apology come as Mr Pesutto faces the prospect of federal court action after being issued with three defamation concerns notices by expelled Liberal Moira Deeming, who accused him of portraying her as a “Nazi sympathiser and Nazi ­associate” following a March Let Women Speak rally which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

The Age earlier this month apologised for Dr Bach’s June article, entitled “Menzies is dead. It’s time for the Liberals to forge a new path”, and retracted the reference, after Mr Ryan issued both Nine Newspapers and Dr Bach with a defamation concerns notice.

Dr Bach’s claims related to an opinion piece Mr Ryan had written in The Australian, in which Mr Ryan argued immigrants “strain the social fabric by culturally transforming suburbs”.

Mr Ryan – who is the director of Brisbane-based think tank Australian Institute for Progress –also contended in the article that “at some level Menzies underestimated the capacity that Australia would eventually have for incorporating people from different walks of life”.

Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto gives a press conference after Moira Deeming’s suspension, flanked by his leadership team, from left David Southwick, Pesutto, Georgie Crozier, Matt Bach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Ascui

In an apology sent to Mr Ryan by Dr Bach’s lawyers, the Liberal education and child protection spokesman made reference to his Age article.

“Mr Ryan considered that some of the comments made by me in the article were defamatory of him,” Dr Bach said in the apology.

“I retract the comments made in the article about Mr Ryan and sincerely apologise to Mr Ryan for such comments.”

Dr Bach also removed references to the article from his social media.

Mr Ryan said he was grateful to have received apologies from both Dr Bach and The Age.

“There is no reason why people thoughtfully discussing important issues like immigration policy or any other issue should be smeared as racist or similar,” Mr Ryan said.

“Menzies would certainly have agreed with me on that. I wish the best of luck to Moira Deeming and others in their defamation actions in Victoria.”

Dr Bach did not respond to a request for comment.

Dan Ryan handing out Liberal how-to-vote cards outside the Australian Consulate in Hong Kong.