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You’re not allowed to post pictures of Jabba the Hutt.
That’s been a rule since forever.
A former Queensland Labor MP has been ordered to pay more than $150,000 for making Facebook posts depicting a lobby group CEO as Jabba the Hutt.
Rob Pyne, now a Cairns councillor, was the MP for Cairns from 2015 until 2017.
District court judge Dean Morzone found Pyne and another north Queenslander, Lyn Elizabeth O’Connor, had defamed Greg Hallam, the former CEO of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), by implying he was “corrupt”.
Morzone awarded Hallam more than $500,000 dollars in damages, with O’Connor and Pyne ordered to pay $346,131 and $157,261 respectively.
That’s over 300K US dollars.
In a Facebook post from June 2017, Pyne wrote a message thanking those who supported a Queensland Icac and criticising “those in power”. The post included a meme of the character Jabba the Hutt, from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Pyne was elected as MP of Cairns in 2015, becoming Queensland’s first ever quadriplegic politician, but resigned from the Labor party in 2016.
…
Morzone found that, though Pyne’s posts do not name Hallam, the image featuring Jabba the Hut was “likely to be read and understood by the ordinary reasonable reader to refer to the plaintiff” because he “exhibited similar physical features” to the fictional character.
“The plaintiff’s physical appearance, including his obesity was publicly recognisable,” the judgment reads.
I can see the resemblance
Three witnesses told the court they understood the publication as referring to Hallam.
In late August, Pyne made another post including a complaint about corruption where he called for a state election.
Pyne stood as an independent at the November 2017 state election but was defeated.
…
Hallam and others told the court he had suffered a significant decline in his mental health due to the “online harassment” by the two defendants. He suffered “insomnia, agitation, irritability, and severe nightmares” as a result of the posts and had an “emotional breakdown” while reading legal documents in Ireland, he said. He was later diagnosed with a psychiatric condition.
“He made claims of significant weight gain and increased alcohol consumption, although these are difficult to gauge against a background of his pre-existing obesity and drinking habits,” Morzone ruled.
Pyne’s four defamatory posts were published online from 21 June to 23 August 2017. They were deleted in 2018.
O’Connor’s 36 defamatory posts were made between 10 June 2017 and 9 December 2019.
The court found Pyne “has never apologised” to Hallam.
Hallam was awarded aggravated damages.
There’s only one Jabba. Except, I guess the rest of the Hutts are sort of like Jabba.
But you can’t say that.
It’s been a rule since forever.
They take defamation very seriously in Australia
