Reforming defamation for the 2020s

The nationally agreed reforms were contained in the Model Defamation Amendment Provisions 2020, which were drafted by the PCO for the Australasian Parliamentary Counsel’s Committee. They were the first set of amendments to the Model Defamation Provisions agreed to and enacted by each State and Territory since the early 2000s.

The Act introduces some significant reforms to the law of defamation, including—

• providing for serious harm to be an element of the cause of action for defamation and requiring the serious harm issue to be dealt with early in proceedings
• requiring a concerns notice to be given to the publisher of matter that is or may be defamatory before defamation proceedings may be commenced against the publisher
• creating new defences for the publication of defamatory matter concerning an issue of public interest and for peer-reviewed matters published in academic or scientific journals
• introducing a single publication rule concerning the limitation period for multiple publications, including those on the internet, of the same defamatory matter by the same publisher or an associate of the publisher.

The Act passed Parliament on 6 August 2020.

Link: Defamation Amendment Act 2020.

Instructor:

Department of Communities and Justice

Drafter:

John Ledda, Deputy Parliamentary Counsel