Federal Labor MP Terri Butler has settled a defamation suit with Queensland University of Technology student Calum Thwaites, after remarks she made about him on an episode of the ABC’s Q&A.
During her appearance on the program, Butler suggested that Thwaites had used a racial slur in a 2013 Facebook post about an indigenous-only computer lab at QUT.
Thwaites, one of three students who were unsuccessfully pursued in a case under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, maintained that he was not responsible for the Facebook post in question.
After the episode aired, Thwaites announced that he was seeking $150,000 damages from Butler, for comments she made implying that he was a racist, bigot and perjurer.
This week, Butler settled with Thwaites for a “modest amount”, said to cover his legal fees, and published a letter of apology, acknowledging evidence given in court that he did not make the posts in question.
She wrote:
A serious allegation had been made, which was that a racist phrase … had been used in a Facebook post, purportedly under your name. You have given evidence, accepted by the court, that you were not the author. Your legal representative, Mr Morris QC, has described you as a victim of malicious identity theft or a prank, which I accept.
In the course of the debate on Q&A, I made comments which were capable of being understood as meaning that you had been responsible for that Facebook post, making you a racist bigot and that,when you denied using those words in court proceedings, you were being dishonest or disingenuous.
There should be no suggestion that you were responsible for the Facebook post, or that your denial was anything other than the truth. Equally, there should be no suggestion that you are racist, or bigoted. I offer you my unreserved apology for enabling those meanings about you to be conveyed, and for the distress and damage to your reputation caused as a consequence.
The exact amount of the settlement is unknown.
The racial discrimination case against Thwaites and his fellow students was struck out in November, although the QUT staff member involved has since appealed that decision.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: Q&A.
