While Australia’s defamation laws can and have been wielded by the powerful as a cudgel against the powerless, it’s hard to be mad at them in the specific instances when it means that the worst people alive actually face consequences for being, well, the worst people alive. Alan Jones forced to pay $3.7 million to a family he blamed for deaths during the 2011 Queensland floods? Very good. Mark Latham forced to make two six-figure payments to two different men he defamed? An endless delight. David Leyonhjelm ordered to pay $120,000 to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young for being a huge piece of shit to her? Yes — yes!
But, in his characteristic turd-like fashion, Leyonhjelm refuses to be flushed, telling supporters on Facebook that he is looking into any avenues of appeal he might have against the ruling:
As you may know, the insufferable [Sarah Hanson-Young] won the defamation case today. I’ll be discussing appeal options with my legal advisers.
No matter the final outcome, it is going to be expensive. For those who would like to help, the GoFundMe account is still active. All contributions will go towards legal fees.
The staunchly anti-collectivist, anti-socialist former politician and full-time fart-huffer is asking his supporters to pool their resources so that they can collectively be used towards a common aim — namely, in defence of the right to call someone you don’t like a big slut on TV.
Proving to be just as popular as you’d think, Leyonhjelm has managed to pull in just shy of $2000 in the 21 hours since he started re-soliciting donations to the GoFundMe. At time of writing, Leyonhjelm has crowdfunded some $1945 in donations from just under 60 contributions, all of which seem to have been made by the most unhinged people alive.
Take, for instance, the person who donated $10 under the name “Get cancer and die green subhuman scum” with the (somewhat redundant) comment: “the greens are filthy subhuman scum who should get cancer, fuck off and die.” Tell us how you really feel, mate.
Other highlights include “We cant let the communists win ! David for World Leader !” ($5), “Hanson Young is the epitome of a looney fruitloop Marxist who cannot handle the TRUTH about herself. She hates FREE SPEECH and is anti-white Australian.” ($40), and “It would not surprise me if Sarah’s unstoppable ego, did something along the lines of even more inappropriate things with her own daughter and her daughter having had enough of ‘mother dearest’s psycho bullshit’ ends up sticking a carving knife in mummy dearest’s feminist neck” ($20). Very strange stuff.
He will be returning to court in December when it will be determined who will be paying legal costs.
