By Byron Kaye

SYDNEY – Australia’s Defence Minister won a lawsuit against a refugee advocate, who called him a “rape apologist” via a Twitter. This was a modest step forward in the conservative government’s attempt to reduce negative comments on social media.

Peter Dutton is a controversial cabinet minister who experienced distress when he was shown the February 25th Twitter post (NYSE:). Although his public profile would suggest that most people view it as an opinion, a federal judge decided.

After finding that Dutton was defamed, but that his daily life wasn’t affected by the tweet, the judge awarded the lawmaker A$35,000 ($25,000).

Another milestone has been reached in the campaign to end what government calls “a coward’s palace”, a social media craze that encourages vindictive sharing. Christian Porter, the former attorney general settled an action for defamation against Australian Broadcasting Corp in relation to tweets he made about historic rape allegations.

Dutton sued Shane Bazzi over his midnight tweet. This was on the same day that Shane Bazzi, then an immigration minister, was defending in media appearances how he handled a sexual assault complaint inside Parliament House.

Bazzi sent a tweet a link from a 2019 article where Dutton said that refugees who claim to have been rape victims are “trying to get it on” in order to enter Australia. This was accompanied by the sentence, “Peter Dutton a rape advocate”.

Dutton is used to politics’ “rough-and–tumble” nature but found the tweet offensive. Richard White published his ruling noting that Bazzi had a blue tick on his account, which indicates that he was a verified person.

Judge added that the “description” of Dutton as someone who exonerates rape “was no doubt a serious defamation”, but that he “did not claim to be more seriously affected by the publication of the Tweet, or the fact his pain and distress continued until the date of trial”.

Dutton’s representative was unavailable for comment immediately. Bazzi stated in a tweet that he was “very disappointed” with the result and would be considering his options.

($1 = 1.3847 Australian dollars)