Pauline Hanson has been singing with joy this week — “Ave Maria”, specifically — after a big win in court. Presumably, she’s also pleased with her successful challenge of Mark Latham’s authority in One Nation’s NSW wing.
First, the court victory: Hanson will avoid paying $250,000 in damages after she successfully appealed a court’s decision in a lawsuit brought by former party mate Brian Burston, who will now be forced to pay Hanson’s court costs as well, according to court documents.
Lawyers for Burston, a former One Nation and United Australia senator, convinced the Federal Court last year that Hanson had defamed him by accusing him in a media interview of sexually abusing a female staffer in his parliamentary office, and implying that he had physically assaulted a male One Nation official without provocation.
But a trio of Federal Court justices on Wednesday decided “the substantial truth” of the first imputation had been proven, and that the second one had not been carried.
“Senator Hanson was so happy with the outcome, she was singing the ‘Ave Maria’ hymn,” her lawyer Danny Eid told Crikey.
He added Hanson was “humbled by the support she has received from the courageous women who came forward” to give evidence.
Though Eid declined to comment on the costs of the legal case, Crikey understands it’s a significant sum in the vicinity of seven figures.
Hanson made the comments she was sued over in an interview with Nine’s Today program, following Al Jazeera’s 2019 revelation One Nation had solicited donations from a person they believed represented US gun lobby group the National Rifle Association.
In the interview with Channel Nine, Hanson was asked if she would “stand by” her chief of staff James Ashby despite the Al Jazeera revelations.
After saying she would, Hanson was asked: “How many chances will they get? Because we know that James has been banned from Parliament House because of his fight with Senator Brian Burston.”
Hanson replied: “No, sorry. Not the fight with Brian Burston. The aggression came from Brian Burston to James Ashby … James Ashby never laid a hand.”
She also added that Ashby had been trying to expose “the sexual abuse and harassment that was going on with a female staffer in his office”.
Unlike Justice Robert Bromwich last year, the trio of justices behind Wednesday’s judgment found the imputation Burston had sexually abused the staffer was “substantially true”.
As for the claim Ashby “never laid a hand on” Burston, Justices Michael Wigney, Michael Wheelahan and Wendy Abraham found it was not defamatory, because it did not suggest to viewers of the program Ashby “did nothing whatsoever to provoke” Burston.
“To the contrary, the statement was used in the context that it was not a physical fight, but that Mr Burston was the physical aggressor as Mr Ashby had not laid a hand on, or physically touched, Mr Burston,” they wrote in their judgment.
Now, to the second reason that Hanson might be feeling joyful. After she sacked Latham as One Nation’s NSW Parliament leader, and installed herself at the top of the state executive of the party, Latham’s three-person team on Macquarie Street has reportedly splintered in their loyalties.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Latham’s upper house colleague Tania Mihailuk had sided with Hanson over the intervention, while Rod Roberts stood by Latham. If Hanson was seeking to weaken Latham, she appears to have succeeded.
As Crikey reported earlier, Hanson and Latham have had a strained relationship for months. The “Queensland intervention” into the NSW wing, as Latham dubbed it, has deepened the strife, perhaps beyond repair.
Latham insists he is still the leader of the NSW wing of the party. It remains to be seen what that will mean in practice.
Crikey has sought comment from Latham and from Burston’s legal team.
