BuzzFeed barrister unsuccessfully argues article by journalist Alice Workman did not contain the imputation

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The federal Labor MP Emma Husar has had an early victory in her defamation case against BuzzFeed, with a judge ruling an article published by the news website in July was capable of conveying that she was a “slut”.

Husar announced she had launched defamation proceedings against BuzzFeed earlier in December over what she described as a “slut-shaming” story that led to her announcing she would not recontest her seat at the next election.

She was in the court for a pre-trial hearing before Justice Steven Rares where BuzzFeed’s barrister, Tim Senior, unsuccessfully sought to argue the article, by the journalist Alice Workman, did not contain the imputation that Husar was a “slut” because it did not claim she had “indiscriminate” sexual encounters.

Emma Husar launches defamation suit over 'slut-shaming' BuzzFeed report Read more

“The word slut isn’t used in the article,” Senior told the court. “That allegation isn’t made by any of the staff members … none of the staff are saying [that] the applicant is a slut or she has indiscriminate sexual encounters.

“The complaints from the staff members are that the applicant is [talking about] who she has been having sex with, not that she’s been sleeping with half the parliament or a number of people.

“The vice in that conduct is that it’s occurring in the workplace and she’s talking about people she’s slept with who are MPs or staff members who are known to the staff.

“It’s not a quantitative issue, it’s the fact she’s saying ‘I’ve slept with this person’.”

Senior sought to have Husar’s statement of claim amended because the word “slut” was too imprecise. He submitted that it should read that Husar had boasted about her sexual partners, and was therefore a “slut”.

“It’s not clear from the context of the article … does it mean that she’s a slut because she boasts?”

But Rares disagreed, describing the story as “salacious” and finding it would be open to readers to find it suggested she was a “slut” who boasted about casual sexual encounters.

“It sounds like very casual sexual partnerships going on to me,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like it’s got an emotional characteristic. To me, it sounds like ‘I’ll sleep around’, which is what a slut is. In my old-fashioned, ordinary understanding.”

Senior countered that the article did not imply Husar had “indiscriminate” sex.

“In my submission she’s not saying ‘I’ll sleep around with anybody’, she’s telling people who she has slept with in particular,” he said.

But Rares again dismissed that argument.

“Why? She’s sitting there saying ‘Oh I’d like to have sex with somebody’,” he said. “That’s what you’re publishing … why is that incapable of somebody who is an ordinary, reasonable member of the public with the loose thinking, not sitting in an ivory tower, able to say well, they’re really saying she’s behaving like a slut?”

BuzzFeed reported in July that New South Wales Labor had commissioned a barrister to investigate Husar after a number of former staff made complaints against her.



The independent investigation into complaints that staff in Husar’s office were subjected to bullying and harassment concluded that various allegations of lewd conduct and sexual harassment were not supported.



However, the review did find cause for further investigation into the allegations of the misuse of public entitlements. It also found that complaints that staff were made to perform non-work-related and personal duties for Husar did have merit.

Husar has said the article claimed she had bragged about her sexual relations, sexually harassed an employee and exposed herself to a colleague and his infant son.

“I am not a bully, I am not Sharon Stone, I am not a thief and I did not deliberately misuse my work expenses,” she said, referencing the Hollywood star widely associated with a “sexually graphic film scene”, she said in parliament in December.

Buzzfeed is due to file its defence by 1 February next year.

