Clive Palmer drops $1m defamation action against The Australian newspaper

CLIVE Palmer has dropped his $1 million defamation claim against The Australian newspaper.

Palmer United Party federal leader and member for Fairfax Clive Palmer has dropped his defamation action against The Australian. Picture: Jono Searle

SELF-proclaimed billionaire and politician Clive Palmer has dropped his $1 million defamation claim against The Australian newspaper.

Mr Palmer, leader of the Palmer United Party, took the action over five articles that appeared in the newspaper last year by Brisbane-based journalist Hedley Thomas. The articles covered Mr Palmer’s business activities in the mining and tourism sectors, as well as his dealings with the Chinese government-owned mining giant Citic Pacific.

Mr Palmer told the ABC’s Lateline program that The Australian’s reporting about the matter was “an invention”.

But in August, Supreme Court judge David Boddice significantly narrowed the scope of Mr Palmer’s defamation action when he ruled that three of the five articles carried no imputations against Mr Palmer. Nine of the 10 imputations alleged by Mr Palmer were struck out by the court.

Lawyers for Mr Palmer recently offered to settle the defamation action concerning the other two articles.

As part of the settlement, The Australian is not required to publish any apology or pay any money to Mr Palmer.

Thomas said that Mr Palmer had become angry with The Australian in June last year when the paper began reporting on his business practices, his public statements and bullying of his staff and others.

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“When he issued Supreme Court defamation proceedings against us 16 months ago and claimed significant damages, we saw it as an attempt to silence or quieten us,” Thomas said. “We continued to investigate Mr Palmer, and he vowed to personally sue Rupert Murdoch, but no such legal action eventuated.

“After spending large sums of money taking on The Australian, Mr Palmer’s decision now to throw in the towel is a win for a free press.”

Mr Palmer confirmed he had dropped the action, saying a trial would have taken “too long”. “Action against @australian dismissed by mutual consent. No order of costs. Trial would take too long. Rather spend time with Fairfax voters,” he tweeted.

Mr Palmer is the member for the federal seat of Fairfax in Queensland.