The head of law firm Slater and Gordon’s class action practice, Ben Hardwick, has described as “blatantly defamatory” a social media statement by Liberal backbencher Jason Falinski accusing him of misleading a parliamentary inquiry.
On Tuesday, Falinski tweeted a video of Hardwick telling an inquiry that “shortly before the treasurer of this country made announcements regarding reforms to class action laws, he met with an affiliate of the American Chamber of Commerce”.
The video describes this claim as “wrong” and in his accompanying tweet Falinski said Hardwick “misled a parliamentary inquiry alleging foreign interference”.
However, in answers to questions on notice, Treasury said that “the treasurer met with an affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, by video conference on 14 May 2020”.
Frydenberg announced a clampdown on litigation funders, who often bankroll class actions, the following Friday 22 May, and the next Monday 25 May followed up with changes watering down rules requiring listed companies to keep the market fully informed about their financial situation that the treasurer said would make it harder to bring shareholder class action lawsuits during the coronavirus crisis.
It is believed Hardwick is considering whether he should sue Falinksi over the statements, which were made without the protection of parliamentary privilege.
“For Mr Falinski to tweet that I have misled a parliamentary inquiry, when I have clearly done no such thing, is blatantly defamatory,” Hardwick said.
“He’s attempting to use his platform as an elected offical to dishonestly smear my reputation.”
Hardwick said his source for his statement to the inquiry was Treasury’s answer to questions on notice.
“If Mr Falinski thinks my mistaken replacement of the word ‘US’ with the word ‘American’ constitutes the misleading of parliament then I would suggest he should seek better legal advice,” he said.
“I continue to believe that Australians are entitled to know why the treasurer of Australia met with the US business lobby, through its Australian affiliate, just days before announcing these bizarre regulations. We know he didn’t meet with Asic. He certainly didn’t meet with any class action members.”
Falinski defended his tweet, telling Guardian Australia the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia’s “affiliation to the US Chamber of Commerce is I think $800 a year”.
“They’re not a foreign entity. Their president is Brendan Nelson for god’s sake.”
Nelson, a former defence minister in the Howard government, is the chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, or AmCham, which describes itself as “the voice of international business interests”.
“The Zoom meeting I am reliably informed was with 50 people and the topic of class actions never came up,” Falinski said.
“He [Frydenberg] was giving an update on Australian business to an Australian audience.”
Hardwick and another senior Slater and Gordon lawyer, Andrew Paull, gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry on Monday.
Falinski has been a vocal participant in the parliamentary inquiry into class actions, tangling last week with Australia’s leading academic expert on the topic, Vince Morabito.
“My god, is this going to be the standard of the questioning today,” Morabito, a professor at Monash University, said after being peppered with questions by Falinski.
During hearings on Wednesday, lobby groups the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors repeated their previous calls for Frydenberg’s watering down of corporate disclosure rules to become permanent.
In addition, the AICD head of advocacy, Louise Petschler, told the inquiry she questioned whether private enforcement of company law through class actions should be allowed at all.
The Australian Industry Group proposed a 10-point plan that, if adopted, would impose strict conditions on class actions, litigation funders and lawyers.
