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Bruce Lehrmann’s big court win · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Thursday, October twenty four. The Albaneze government has poured
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars into housing programs, but the spending has
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  Speaker 1: focused on marginal seats and safe labor electorates. A new
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  Speaker 1: analysis by The Australian has shown the war between two
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  Speaker 1: rival indigenous groups is heating up. It's all about a
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  Speaker 1: gold mine in New South Wales, which a group of
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  Speaker 1: Warajuri elders says would destroy a sacred place. The elders
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  Speaker 1: say the local Aboriginal Land Council, also representing Warajuri people,
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  Speaker 1: has financial links to the mining company. Those exclusives alive
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au. Bruce
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  Speaker 1: Lemon's had a big win in his defam battle against
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  Speaker 1: Network ten and Lisa Wilkinson. A judge's rules he can
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  Speaker 1: appeal a Federal court finding that he was a rapist
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  Speaker 1: on the balance of probabilities, something Lairman has always denied,
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  Speaker 1: and Lehman won't have to cough up a massive legal
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  Speaker 1: bill Yet today all the latest twists just when you
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  Speaker 1: think Bruce Lahman is running out of options, fortune turns
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  Speaker 1: in his favor.
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  Speaker 2: He did bring the proceeding and he has had a hearing. However,
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  Speaker 2: it is not quite as simple as that.
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  Speaker 1: That's a voice actor reading the words of Justice Wendy
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  Speaker 1: Abraham of the Federal Court. On Wednesday, she handed down
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  Speaker 1: a big win for Lairman, the man who is always
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  Speaker 1: denied raping Brittany Higgins on a sofa in Federal Parliament
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  Speaker 1: in March twenty nineteen. Back then, Lahman was a brash,
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  Speaker 1: young Liberal ministerial staffer. He was twenty three, ambitious and
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  Speaker 1: self assured. Now he's unemployed, living on a job seeker
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  Speaker 1: payment worth about three hundred and forty dollars a week.
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  Speaker 1: He's facing bankruptcy proceedings and another allegation of rape, which
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  Speaker 1: is going through the Queensland courts, where Lahman will say
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  Speaker 1: he's not guilty. Laman has nothing to lose and he's
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  Speaker 1: fighting to get his life back. Justice Abraham's decision gives
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  Speaker 1: the go ahead for Lairman to appeal the finding that's
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  Speaker 1: put him where he is today. In April, Justice Michael
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  Speaker 1: Lee of the Federal Court found he had, on the
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  Speaker 1: balance of probabilities, raped another young Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins
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  Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen. Laman has always maintained no sexual contact occurred.
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  Speaker 3: And the first thing that sort of awoke me was
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  Speaker 3: I was in a pain. My leg was kind of
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  Speaker 3: being crushed. The senior staff was on top of me,
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  Speaker 3: so as I woke up med ury.
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  Speaker 1: Essentially, that's the Network ten interview with Brittany Higgins which
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  Speaker 1: Laman objects to.
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  Speaker 4: He was suing Network ten and Lisa Wilkinson for defamation
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  Speaker 4: but instead suffered a devastating legal own goal.
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  Speaker 1: Lee ordered Laerman to pay two million dollars to Ten
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  Speaker 1: and Wilkinson to cover their legal bills. He doesn't have
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  Speaker 1: the doe, but Lamon is putting his faith in the
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  Speaker 1: courts again with an appeal against Lee's finding. Ten and
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  Speaker 1: Wilkinson tried to kill off the appeal before it even began,
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  Speaker 1: asking Justice Abraham to rule Laman would have to put
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in a trust account
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  Speaker 1: to cover their legal fees in case he lost. In
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  Speaker 1: her decision on Wednesday, Abraham quoted just as Michael Lee's
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  Speaker 1: original decision on costs, here's Lee's real voice in his judgment.
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  Speaker 1: He gives ten and Wilkinson the respondents a sideswipe.
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  Speaker 5: There are no real winners in this litigation. The result
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  Speaker 5: is best characterized as a respondents overcoming a misconceived claim
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  Speaker 5: in relation to a broadcast because they were able to
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  Speaker 5: prove a trial the substantial truth of what the contemporaneous
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  Speaker 5: material demonstrates that they considered to be the less substantial
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  Speaker 5: obligation made in the broadcast.
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  Speaker 1: Lee is saying Ten and Wilkinson failed on one of
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  Speaker 1: their defenses, showing their journalism was reasonable, but they won
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  Speaker 1: in the end because he believed Brittany Higgins was telling
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  Speaker 1: the truth about the rape. Here's what Abraham said on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 2: The primary judge made findings against all parties. All parties
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  Speaker 2: now claim the primary judgment contains errors.
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  Speaker 1: Network Ten told the court there was no public interest
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  Speaker 1: in allowing Lamen to appeal. Abraham rejected that.
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  Speaker 2: The appellate process is a fundamental aspect of the administration
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  Speaker 2: of justice. The impact on him if he is denied
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  Speaker 2: that right is self evident.
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  Speaker 1: The judge noted that both Ten and Wilkinson had conceded
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  Speaker 1: there were arguable grounds of appeal, and she said being
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  Speaker 1: forced to put hundreds of thousands of dollars up front
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  Speaker 1: would kill off Laman's appeal. She also noted Lamon would
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  Speaker 1: probably be unable to pay costs if he loses.
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  Speaker 2: I'm conscious that Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson will incur
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  Speaker 2: costs should this appeal proceed, which, if any costs orders
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  Speaker 2: are made in their favor, will likely be unrecoverable.
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  Speaker 1: She said, they'd have to wear that. This is what
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  Speaker 1: defamation specials were expecting. By the way, it would have
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  Speaker 1: been a big deal if Justice Abraham had allowed Ten
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  Speaker 1: to effectively kill off this appeal because Lamon is out
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  Speaker 1: of money. So now Laman's appeal gets to be heard
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  Speaker 1: by the full bench of the Federal Court. And although
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  Speaker 1: it'll cost Ten and Wilkinson a fortune in legal fees,
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  Speaker 1: their only alternative would be to give up and not
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  Speaker 1: defend their journalism. That's not an option, So back to
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  Speaker 1: court will go at a date yet to be set.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up why Bruce Lammon won't be turning to only
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  Speaker 1: fans anytime soon. Bruce Lamon had another win on Wednesday.
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  Speaker 1: Justics Abraham agreed with Laman that he shouldn't have to
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  Speaker 1: pay the legal costs of Ten and Wilkinson yet Here's
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  Speaker 1: what his lawyer, Zali Burrows argued during hearing of this
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  Speaker 1: matter a few weeks ago. We've used a voice actor.
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  Speaker 4: It's a bit rich in asking him to put up
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  Speaker 4: two hundred thousand dollars when they are one of the contributors.
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  Speaker 4: As to why he is pretty much unemployable. The only
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  Speaker 4: shot he'd probably ever be making money is by going
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  Speaker 4: on only fans or something silly like that.
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  Speaker 1: Zally Burrows suggested Ten was being a bully. Here's what
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  Speaker 1: Justice Abraham said.
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  Speaker 2: There is no dispute that mister Lherman is on Centralic
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  Speaker 2: benefits and is impecunious. Network Ten accepts that mister Lammon
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  Speaker 2: does not have the money to pay the order.
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  Speaker 1: At the last hearing, Ten told the court they'd commenced
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  Speaker 1: bankruptcy proceedings against Laman, although his lawyer quibbled with this.
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  Speaker 1: Ten's lawyer, Matthew Collins Casey, said they didn't have high hopes.
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  Speaker 6: I think we are, frankly all proceeding on the basis
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  Speaker 6: that there'll never be any recovery. But that's just an
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  Speaker 6: assumption on our part. Only when a trustee in bankruptcy
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  Speaker 6: gets in and looks at mister Lehman's affairs, will we
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  Speaker 6: have some clarity?
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  Speaker 1: Justice Abraham said, to allow the bankruptcy process to proceed
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  Speaker 1: now would only mean more people have to pay more
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  Speaker 1: legal fees for more proceedings.
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  Speaker 2: Mister Lamman would likely be declared bankrupt. With all that
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  Speaker 2: that entails, it would likely affect his prosecution of any
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  Speaker 2: appeal that the first respondent asserts mister Lherman has no
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  Speaker 2: ability to obtain money in any event, is of no
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  Speaker 2: moment in the circumstances. I'm satisfied that the balance of
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  Speaker 2: convenience favors the granting of a stay of the costs order.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, if Lehman wins the appeal, the two
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  Speaker 1: million dollars wouldn't have to be paid anyway. So in
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  Speaker 1: legal terms, Bruce Lahmon lives to fight another day. All
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  Speaker 1: the big court cases alive for us subscribers at The Australian,
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  Speaker 1: where a year of the nation's best journalism costs less
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  Speaker 1: than a single hour of a top barrister's time. Join
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  Speaker 1: us at Theaustralian dot com dot au