This was an application for leave to appeal from a decision of the District Court awarding the respondent AUD70,000 in damages for defamation. The proposed grounds of appeal concerned the applicability of the qualified privilege defence. At issue was whether the publication had wrongly been held not to have been published on a privileged occasion and whether the trial judge had, in any event, wrongly determined the publication to have been made with malice. The application did not raise a sufficiently arguable case to justify the grant of leave and was refused.
Rob Anderson KC appeared for the respondent, instructed by Gall Standfield & Smith.
The judgment is published here.