Barilaro’s case against Shanks was resolved in November last year when Shanks apologized, edited the videos and paid $ 100,000 in legal costs. Rare noted that Shanks “didn’t have to shut up for long” and publicly mocked the deal.
“The law allows a critic to wet the pen for the purpose of legitimate criticism. People in public life, like Mr. Barilaro, must have a broad back and be prepared to face harsh criticism. “Rare said.
“But as in most areas of life, nothing is absolute. The right to criticize is not a license to defame, cyberbully, direct hate speech or make baseless attacks on anyone, even a high-profile and controversial politician. “
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Rare said the videos conveyed “very serious and false defamatory allegations” about Barilaro, without Google believing the truth of the allegations. The internet giant also maintained unsustainable defenses until the trial began and never apologized to Barilaro.
“Mr. Shanks created numerous videos that he and Google posted on YouTube in their relentless and cruel campaign against Barilaro,” Rares said.
“He called Mr. Barilaro disgusting racist names, including a” little greasy scrotum. ” [and a] ‘wog’ … and he repeatedly called Mr. Barilaro corrupt. Although Mr. Shanks is said to be a comedian, his repeated use of these terms was not comic. It was nothing more than a racist hate speech. “
Rare said the videos sparked thousands of “hateful” and “disturbing” posts and messages on social media, including one suggesting that Barilaro’s daughter should be raped. As a result, Barilaro, who was scheduled to run in the 2023 state election, resigned in 2021.
“The reported cases caused Mr. Barilaro to prematurely abandon his chosen service in public life and significantly traumatized him.”
Judge Steven Rares
“The reported issues caused Mr. Barilaro to prematurely abandon his chosen service in public life and significantly traumatized him,” Rares said. “Google didn’t play a passive role. It made a lot of money by posting Mr. Shanks’ videos. It could control whether or not they were available on YouTube, but it chose to do nothing.”
Rare awarded Barilaro $ 675,000, plus $ 40,000 in pre-trial interest. Costs will be determined at a later date.
In statements outside the court, Barilaro said it had been a long and traumatic journey and that all he had initially wanted from Google was an apology and the videos removed. He said the legislation “has probably not been up to date” with the new media and “I think there is work to be done at the federal level.”
“It was never about the money,” Barilaro said. “I’m glad it’s over … I’ve been vindicated today.”
In a statement, Shanks said part of his defense had been ruled out due to parliamentary privilege, before he finally reached an agreement with Barilaro and could not offer any further input on the case.
“Poor old Google left to take the can,” he said. “I guess they’re rich enough not to care.”
Professor David Rolph, a defamation law expert at the University of Sydney, said the damage was “very substantial”, which was not surprising in a case with numerous grounds for aggravation.
He said it was “not the biggest damage award we’ve seen,” which was among the amounts awarded to actors Rebel Wilson and Geoffrey Rush.
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The defamation reforms that went into effect in NSW in 2021 were intended to clarify how general and aggravated damages are awarded in such cases, in an attempt to reduce the size of payments.
Rolph said “we will still be able to see large global damages claims” in the future, especially when there are substantial grounds for aggravation.
Barilaro’s attorney, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, had demanded that her client receive “top-of-the-range” compensation for “malicious” videos, which spurred online and in-person harassment. He said there had been an extreme level of aggravating conduct in the case, including Shanks selling a keychain depicting Barilaro as a scrotum.
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