The Labor parliamentarian who smeared a Queensland University of Technology student as a racist and perjurer on the ABC’s Q&A program got a formal response yesterday — a defamation action filed in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Terri Butler, the federal member for the inner-Brisbane seat of Griffith, will have until just before Christmas to file her defence to the proceedings launched yesterday by QUT student Calum Thwaites.
A 21-page statement of claim, prepared by Tony Morris QC, seeks damages, aggravated damages and interest “not exceeding the jurisdiction of this court’’, which awards up to $150,000.
Cases in the Magistrates Court move faster than those in the higher courts, and are not heard by a jury.
On Monday night Ms Butler, a graduate of QUT and a former industrial lawyer for class-action law firm Maurice Blackburn, suggested to a Q&A audience of up to one million viewers that Mr Thwaites had used the word “niggers’’ in a Facebook post in late May 2013.
Mr Thwaites has repeatedly denied having written the post, which he said came from a false Facebook account bearing his name. Earlier this month, Federal Circuit Court judge Michael Jarrett dismissed a $250,000 racial hatred case brought under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by QUT staff member Cindy Prior against Mr Thwaites and other students.
Judge Jarrett accepted that Mr Thwaites had not written the post, ruling there was no evidence to the contrary. Mr Thwaites had complained to Facebook about the false social media profile, set up by another student as a prank.
But Ms Butler, who in 2014 won the seat vacated by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, claimed on the ABC that there had been no determination about the Facebook post, adding “we never found out”. She suggested that Mr Thwaites had in fact posted it.
She said: “This is the situation. And we never found out because it was not determined. I’m saying this is what the allegations were and the matters were not determined.” When told on Q&A that Mr Thwaites had repeatedly denied it was his Facebook post, Ms Butler replied: “He would say that, wouldn’t he?”
In the statement of claim filed yesterday, Ms Butler is accused of causing harm and injury by falsely implying that Mr Thwaites is a racist bigot and perjurer who deceived the Federal Circuit Court.
Barrister Mr Morris offered Ms Butler an opportunity late yesterday to nominate a solicitor to accept service of the statement of claim, “to spare you the inconvenience and potential embarrassment of personal service”.
The statement of claim says her assertions would cause great harm to Mr Thwaites as he intended to be a lawyer, having quit a teaching degree over fears students and their parents would Google his name and wrongly perceive him as racist. Ms Butler has not offered Mr Thwaites an apology.
