Former Liberal National MP Dr Andrew Laming has reached a confidential settlement in a defamation case he brought against Nine over a broadcast in March last year.
Nine Entertainment has agreed to pay Laming an undisclosed amount and apologise for the story on Nine News Queensland which falsely accused him of taking an “upskirting” photograph of a woman while she was on her knees stacking a bar fridge.
The apology was read out in the federal court on Wednesday morning before Justice Robert Bromwich who congratulated the parties on reaching a settlement.
The settlement brings to an end a long list of apologies already received by the former MP from a slew of high-profile politicians and media figures.
“On 27 March 2021, Nine News Queensland broadcast a report about Dr Laming who was at the time a member of federal parliament,” the apology said. “Serious allegations were made about Dr Laming in that report and he sued Nine because of it. Nine News has now seen material which indicates that the photograph Dr Laming took was not lewd in nature. Nine News unreservedly withdraws those allegations about Dr Laming and apologises to him and his family for the hurt and harm caused by the report.”
Nine has declined to comment.
Laming has already secured apologies from Greens senator Sarah-Hanson Young, Labor senator Murray Watt, former Victorian senator Derryn Hinch, News Corp Australia journalist Eliza Barr and Queensland Labor party state MP Don Brown. The ABC has previously also settled a defamation case involving investigative reporter Louise Milligan and Laming.
After the hearing Laming said Nine had “finally acknowledged that allegations they broadcast last year were not true”.
“Two weeks ago, Nine dropped all of its defences to my claim,” Laming said. “Today it acknowledged seeing material convincing it to unreservedly withdraw the serious allegations it made; and to publicly apologise to me and my family. It is highly commendable that they, like many senior political and media figures previously, have agreed to right wrongs and apologise when presented with the facts.
“As I stated over a year ago, the stream of bizarre allegations came from political critics. None of it was true. The hurt and humiliation was borne by my family, my friends and work colleagues. At the time, there was no media interest in any facts that might threaten that narrative.”
The Laming story, by Nine’s Peter Fegan and Rebeka Powell, won several awards for the network.
The Investigation of Andrew Laming won the 2021 Walkley award for television/video news reporting.
“The Walkley Foundation is considering the matter,” a spokesperson told the Guardian.
The 2021 Journalist of the Year is @PeterFegan9 and @RebekaPowell. Congratulations! #Clarions
— ClarionsQLD (@QldClarions) October 9, 2021
Fegan and Powell were awarded best TV news report and named joint journalist of the year at the Queensland Clarion awards.
In Milligan’s case a payment of $79,000 plus costs was paid to Laming for the tweets in which she suggested he had taken a photo of a woman “under her skirt”.
In August 2021 Justice Anna Katzmann ordered a consent judgment in favour of Laming, after the ABC journalist removed the tweet at the centre of the dispute.
