Mattie McGrath warns defamation law must protect businesses
Mattie McGrath spoke on defamation law reform, supporting the legislation while urging caution and practical protections. He recounted a personal defamation case and argued that high legal costs put justice out of reach and create serious risks for businesses and staff.
Personal experience of defamation
McGrath described being defamed in a Sunday edition, pursuing a case to correct the untruths and requesting a donation for a local hospital as restorative justice. He said the publisher accepted they were wrong, but he faced substantial legal bills despite seeking only rectification.
Costs and access to justice
He told the minister that defamation litigation is "frightfully, frightfully, frightfully expensive," with lawyers noting heavy fees even where disputes involved only emails and short phone calls and no court business. McGrath warned that justice that is out of reach because of cost is not justice, and said large jury awards were later taken away at the European Court when he pursued the matter further.
Impact on businesses and staff
The deputy highlighted "transient defamation" where businesses can be sued for comments made while providing or refusing services, such as questioning suspected shoplifting. He described the area as a minefield for managers and employees and stressed the need to protect staff, businesses and reputations while remaining fair to customers.
Concerns about licensing law changes
McGrath flagged additional worries about proposed, as-yet unpublished legislation to liberalise licensing laws and make licences easier to obtain. He said businesses already face a plethora of laws and new regulations and need solid legal ground to operate safely.
Appeal for measured reform
He urged the minister to move carefully - to "make haste slowly" - and said he had listened to people operating at the coalface. McGrath offered broad support for reform but called for cautious, practical changes to ensure access to justice and protections for businesses and staff.
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Gourmaha g'day to Minister, I want to thank you and compliment you for proceeding with this legislation, because we barely need a review. And defamation, you know, is such a difficult area, and it's a very expensive area if one is a citizen is defamed, and it happened myself, actually, and I took a case and we got it corrected, but frightfully, frightfully, frightfully expensive, when blatant untruths were published on a Sunday edition, and I didn't want anything, only it's true to be rectified, but I did want a donation for a local hospital, by way of, you know, when they accepted they were wrong, and as a kind of a restorative justice, if you like, but no. But when I got the bill, the costs were paid, obviously, from my lawyers, and my barristers told me that defamation litigation is frightfully expensive, and there was only a number of emails and a couple of short phone calls, there was no business to the four courts or any court, so it was frightfully, so justice that's out of the reach of persons is not justice at all, because they can't, many people can be defamed, and they have to suck it up, they can't afford to get the rights, so there's a huge need for changes here. Again, people in businesses, you know, you've been naming it here, transient defamation, where businesses are sued for comments made in the course of providing or refusing services, such as questioning in relation to suspected shoplifting or issues like that, and that's a very difficult area, it's a minefield, first of all, by the business, by the store manager, and by employees, and it's an awful tin line, and, you know, it's very, very, very delicate, and it's the same with refusal to run a premises of, you know, if you're running a food outlet or whatever, or a licensed premises, they have huge issues, and there's huge concerns coming now, Minister too, with other legislation that's proposed, hasn't been published yet, about the change of the licensing laws and the more liberalisation of them and more ease of obtaining licenses, so there's issues there. So I want to support business people who are out there, like, they have a plethora of laws and new regulations to deal with, but they also need to be, have some solid ground to stand on. If there's blatant, you know, abuses going on and shoplifting or unpleasant behaviour or whatever, the staff must be protected, first of all, and their business must be protected, and a good name of the business, while being fair to the customer as well. So it's very difficult, is what I'm saying to you, for people to operate in business with these, with these treatments, threats of defamation, and the sheer figures that were paid out by juries, and thankfully were, were, were, they were taken away when I went to the European court. So there's a lot of work to be done here. I urge caution, and I urge to make haste slowly, and I wish you well with it. And I have broadly researched, not researched, but listened to the people who are out there operating at the coalface. Go on. Thank you. Thank you.
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