Greens Senator Retracts Defamatory Comments, Apologises After Minister Sues

Greens Senator Larissa Waters and Leader Adam Bandt and hold a snap press conference in the Mural Hall at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on March 15, 2021. Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters has issued a public apology for the defamatory comments she made about Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

Waters admitted that on Feb. 21, she published a media release on her website and Twitter and made comments during a press conference that contained false and defamatory statements that Dutton, a Liberal politician, was a rape apologist.

She also accused Dutton of seeking to conceal and dismiss reports of rape and said he had no sympathy for victims of rape.

Dutton took legal action against Waters, and she has now issued a public retraction of her comments and an apology.

“I accept that there was no basis for those allegations and that they were false. I unreservedly apologise to Minister Dutton for the hurt, distress and damage to his reputation I have caused him,” Waters wrote on March 24.

Dutton, who once lambasted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying the tech giant facilitated child sexual abuse on its platform, told 2GB radio that he sued Waters because her comments had crossed a line.

“I’ve dedicated a lot of my public life to protecting women and children, and I’m very serious about it and her comments against me, I just thought, completely crossed the line,” he said.

Australian Liberal MP Peter Dutton in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Nov. 25, 2019. Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

He went on to say that Water’s comments fell outside the realm of responsible public debate.

“Criticise me and disagree with my point of view. I don’t have any problem with that. That’s a part of our democracy,” he said. “But I’m not going to be defamed in that way, and people should know that if they wanna do that, there’s a price to pay for it, and I think that’s appropriate.”

Dutton said the rules—and consequences—of the real world need to apply to anonymous social media users who promote false and damaging stories.

He noted that as a public figure, “there’s a lot of crap that I cop,” which he usually accepts. But he said there needed to be “a red line.”