The Redland City Council defamation report

The Redland City Council Defamation Report (PDF3.9MB)

The Redland City Council defamation report: An investigation into the unreasonable threat of legal action against residents by Redland City Council was approved for release by the Hon. Peter Wellington MP, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament, on 5 January 2017.

The investigation was launched following receipt of complaints from two residents, who had received letters from council threatening defamation action in response to alleged defamatory comments about council, council officers and the Mayor on social media. In addition, council wrote to the employer of one of the complainants advising that she had published defamatory material online which included her work email signature block.

The Ombudsman found that the council’s action in threatening defamation proceedings was unreasonable. In particular, the approach adopted by council was unreasonable in that none of the alleged defamed parties had given instructions to take action. In the absence of instructions from any of the alleged defamed parties it was unreasonable for council to have expended public funds pursuing this course of action. The Ombudsman found that the council did not have a policy to guide decision-making around whether to fund private legal action on behalf of councillors or council employees.

While public bodies cannot bring an action in defamation as per s.9(2) of the Defamation Act 2005, the letters sent by council to the complainants also incorrectly alleged that council had been defamed.

The errors in the letters sent to the complainants and the lack of documented decisions led the Ombudsman to conclude that there was only a superficial or rushed consideration of the action taken by council. As a government agency, council is required under the Public Records Act 2002 to ensure its decisions are documented to uphold the public sector’s values of accountability and transparency.

During the investigation, the Ombudsman wrote to the Director-General of the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning about the need for all Queensland councils to have a specific policy on funding legal action for councillors and council employees. The Director-General released a Local Government Bulletin to all Queensland councils on this issue.

As a result of recommendations made in the report, council eventually wrote to both complainants to confirm that no legal action would be taken against either of them in relation to the comments made on social media. Council also wrote separately to the complainant whose employer was contacted and provided an explanation about why council had taken this course of action.