TAS drops Changes to Allow Corporations to Sue Protesters for Defamation
Monday 9 February 2015 @ 9.36 a.m. | Corporate & Regulatory | Legal Research
In a follow up to TimeBase' previous article, where it was described that the Tasmanian Government was sticking by its election promise to be the first State to allow businesses to sue protesters for defamation, they have now abandoned their changes to defamation laws after considerable public backlash.
Proposed Changes to Defamation Law
Corporations could have sued protesters for disparaging their reputation with false or misleading claims under the proposal, which the Hodgman government took to the election last March and reaffirmed as recently as January 2015 in their press release.
The state attorney general, Vanessa Goodwin, said at the time it was aimed at curbing:
“radical environmental groups who make a hobby of spreading misinformation to markets with the aim of destroying Tasmanian jobs."
The proposal would have caused Tasmania to deviate from nationally consistent libel laws introduced in 2006, unless other states also signed on.
Problems with Forum Shopping
The proposed laws attracted criticism from the legal sector due to the possibility of forum shopping where corporations from elsewhere would file suits in Tasmania due to the favourable laws.
Attorney-General Vanessa Goodwin abandoned the proposed changes because they were not supported by other states:
“My conversations to date with my interstate colleagues, and broader issues raised by community stakeholders, indicates there isn’t national consensus for altering the uniform law...Given that changes to the national uniform law aren’t going to be supported, I have made the decision that there is sufficient uncertainty about the unintended consequences of forum shopping for Tasmania not to proceed with a change to state legislation."
The change had also been criticised by the president of the Tasmanian Law Society, Matthew Verney, who warned it was draconian and “impinged on people’s ability to speak freely”.
“Ostensibly it would look like the current state government is trying to limit speech and limit criticism of things like the forestry industry. But the worry for us is that it would go far beyond the forestry industry"
Critics had also raised the prospect that Tasmania would become a magnet for corporate lawsuits targeting other campaigns, such as those against sweatshop labour, fracking or animal cruelty.
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