Page 3209 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 11 September 1991
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Another point in relation to defamation law is that, whilst some print publications when they make corrections do publish them on the same page or in the same general area, often it is rather higgledy-piggledy and the corrections will appear anywhere, often not in as large print as the original defamation. It may be on page 17 instead of page 1, where the original defamatory action occurred. We felt that the Government should encourage the print media to ensure that apologies appear on a regular page in the local media and that this be listed as part of the contents index for the publication.
People read On Page Three in the Canberra Times to see what is in that column, and I suppose people also read the court reports to see who has been picked up for drink-driving. We are very much like a small country town there. People read the classified ads index to see what they might find in the way of bargains if they are looking for a new car or a second-hand car or whatever. Similarly, if apologies appear on a certain page of the local newspaper and also are regularly listed in the index, I think that would satisfy all reasonable requirements for the print media to apologise properly for incorrect and defamatory statements they may make.
When the Attorney-General is looking at the question of defamation law in the ACT and considering any discussions with his colleagues in the three eastern States, I trust that he will take into consideration the results of our committee's deliberations in relation to defamation law. Our recommendations, all of which are eminently sensible, take up the points raised by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General considering this issue and they list a number of other points which I think are specific to the ACT.
Defamation law in the ACT, particularly because of our very strict standards of establishing a defence, has been used as a means of certain people not just recouping any damage to their reputation but also making a tidy little sum of money on the side. That is not really the point of defamation law. Defamation law is meant to compensate, as best it can, for damage to one's reputation, and also, of course, for any economic loss the court quantifies as a result of the damage to that reputation.
Defamation law is something that should be uniform throughout Australia. That is very desirable, to stop forum shopping. We have a lot of problems here in relation to forum shopping which I think can be quite easily addressed by the Government. It is an area of law that has not been revised for a long time. As chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of this Assembly, I hope that this Government and its State colleagues finalise their deliberations shortly so that we see uniform and sensible defamation law.
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