The ACT government has settled a defamation claim brought by Liberal senator and former defence minister, Linda Reynolds. Senator Reynolds launched the case over comments made by the Territory's former top prosecutor after the trial of former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Ros, the case relates to a letter that Shane Drumgold, the former Director of Public Prosecutions,
00:09 sent to the ACT's Chief Police Officer shortly after Mr Lehman's trial was abandoned due
00:15 to juror misconduct, which has of course left no findings against him.
00:20 Mr Drumgold made several claims about Senator Reynolds' conduct during the trial in that
00:26 letter.
00:27 He referred to it as disturbing.
00:28 Now, for legal reasons, we won't repeat the precise claims that he made, but Senator Linda
00:34 Reynolds claimed they were defamatory.
00:37 And incidentally, Shane Drumgold did withdraw those claims when he was giving evidence last
00:43 year at an inquiry into how the case was handled.
00:47 Linda Reynolds claimed that the ACT government, for its role, was vicariously liable for the
00:56 publication of defamatory material, given that this letter was ultimately released to
01:02 a media outlet under freedom of information and then subsequently reported on widely.
01:08 So what are the terms of the settlement, Patrick?
01:12 The ACT government has agreed to pay $90,000 to Senator Reynolds, $70,000 of which is damages
01:20 and $20,000 is to cover some of her legal expenses.
01:24 Now, the ABC has sought clarification from Senator Reynolds' officers as to whether she
01:29 is continuing with a separate claim, or rather, continuing with this claim against Mr Drumgold
01:38 personally.
01:39 He was named as a defendant in this case.
01:43 But as far as the ACT government is concerned, the Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury says
01:48 he believes the matter is now resolved.
01:52 The settlement does include a formal apology from the Territory.
01:56 That apology is made by the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate
02:00 on behalf of the ACT government.
02:03 It has been provided to Senator Reynolds and she is free to publish it as she sees fit.
02:07 Shane Drumgold separately.
02:09 Shane Drumgold, Patrick, will today learn the outcome of a challenge to the findings
02:14 of that inquiry into the case.
02:17 Shane Drumgold has sought a judicial review of the findings from that board of inquiry
02:23 in the ACT Supreme Court.
02:26 Many of those findings were critical of his conduct during the prosecution, but he has
02:31 argued that the inquiry chair, Walter Sofronoff, may have been biased against him and that's
02:38 based off his communications with journalist at The Australian, Janet Albretson.
02:43 Mr Drumgold has also argued that he was, in some areas of that inquiry, denied natural
02:50 justice.
02:51 And so we expect that that decision will be handed down at about two o'clock this afternoon.
02:58 Shane Drumgold is seeking either for some of the findings of the inquiry to be set aside
03:04 or for another legal declaration about the way the inquiry was conducted.
03:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]