Australia has become a defamation hotspot. Are our politicians, whose own attacks in Parliament are protected by privilege, overdoing it? Jason Bosland explains.

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a biweekly podcast about the law behind the news. In this episode, Associate Professor Jason Bosland explains what defamation is and why politicians sue over it, updates to Australian defamation law, and why some deserve to succeed in their court cases. Further reading: Melbourne Law School’s Dr Jessica Lake explains what the Higgins v Reynolds ruling tells us about defamation in Australia  Cases mentioned in this episode: Reynolds v Higgins (2025) WASC 345 [2022] FCA 1235 - Burston v Hanson Palmer v McGowan (No 6) [2022] FCA 927 Greenwich v Latham [2024] FCA 1050 Hanson-Young v Bauer Media Ltd [2013] NSWSC 1306 Russell v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2023] FCA 38 Russell v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2023] FCA 38 Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live.