The former New South Wales opposition leader Luke Foley has backed down from his threat to sue the ABC over allegations he sexually harassed a journalist.
Foley resigned as NSW Labor leader earlier in November after the ABC journalist Ashleigh Raper alleged he put his hands in her underwear at a 2016 parliamentary Christmas party.
At the time, Foley threatened to sue the the public broadcaster for defamation.
“The first thing I’d like to say is that the allegations against me today made public by the ABC are false,” he said during a brief press conference on 8 November.
“I’ve retained solicitors and senior counsel to advise of immediate commencement of defamation proceedings in the federal court of Australia.”
But, in the days following his resignation, the ABC had yet to receive any correspondence from lawyers acting for Foley, and on Wednesday he confirmed to Australian Associated Press that he no longer planned to proceed with the case.
“It’s in nobody’s interests for this matter to be the subject of long-running court proceedings, and I won’t put everyone through this,” Foley said.
Foley will quit the parliament at the next election in March.
He had been under pressure from within the Labor party not to drag out the matter, as the new opposition leader, Michael Daley, seeks clear air to establish himself in the position.
