REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
O'CALLAGHAN J
INTRODUCTION
1 The applicant, Mr Alexander Greenwich, has been the member for Sydney in the New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Assembly since 2012. He is an openly gay man, and it was an agreed fact that he "is an advocate for his constituents in Sydney, and others including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community, families with children, women, people who are homeless, people in late stages of advance disease seeking assisted dying, people with disabilities and First Nations people." He was once also the convenor of Australian Marriage Equality.
2 The respondent, Mr Mark Latham, was formerly the member for Werriwa in the House of Representatives from 1994 to 2005. At that time, he was a member of the Australian Labour Party. He served as leader of the Federal Opposition from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned from Parliament after the 2004 election. In 2019, he was elected to the NSW Legislative Council as a member of Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party, and served as leader of that party in NSW until he was removed from that role and resigned from the party in August 2023. He now sits as an independent member of the NSW Legislative Council. It was an agreed fact that Mr Latham is a well-known Australian politician.
3 Mr Greenwich and Mr Latham may fairly be described as political opponents. They sit at different ends of the political spectrum and, until the events giving rise to this proceeding, had engaged with one another in regular (and at times, robust) public debate.
THE EVIDENCE RELIED UPON
4 Mr Greenwich read and relied upon:
- (a) two affidavits affirmed by him on 28 February and 23 April 2024, respectively;
- (b) the affidavit of Mr Victor Hoeld, Mr Greenwich's husband, affirmed 27 February 2024;
- (c) the affidavit of Mr Alexander Graham, senior electorate officer in Mr Greenwich's electorate office, affirmed 20 February 2024;
- (d) the affidavit of Ms Anne McCall, electorate officer in Mr Greenwich's electorate office, affirmed 20 February 2024;
