On November 13, a researcher in the Parliamentary Library, Geoff Wade, lodged defamation proceedings against MWM and the author of this story.
On January 30, we attended a case management hearing before Justice Nicholas Owens of the Federal Court of Australia.
We had already made a number of efforts to address Geoff Wade’s concerns with his lawyers Alisa Taylor and Courtney Noble of Canberra law firm MV Law. These were ignored. We were instructed by Justice Owens to prepare a defence.
It was filed yesterday evening (and published below).
We believe the action is vexatious and without merit. Whether the Applicant has been defamed or not is for the Court to decide.
In order to fund the case, we undertook a crowdfunding campaign and surpassed the target of $40k in 24 hours then closed the offer at $48,666. We are deeply appreciative of the community support!
It is important that we are transparent. We pledged to make public the Wade claim (it is published here) and legal correspondence in the matter, including our Defence.
The Defence has just been filed by Sharangan Maheswaran, Mark Davis and Jack Vaughan of XD Law and Advocacy. We publish it below so that supporters and the public can judge for themselves as to the merits of the claim and the defence.
MWM defamation case update – defence filed, Senate row
Has Parliament been misled by the chiefs of the Department of Parliamentary Services in a fiery Senate Estimates exchange? Michael West reports.
It may be a little too brawny to call for prosecution and prison sentences for the top brass of the Department of Parliamentary Services – such are the penalties for misleading Parliament – but it is fair to ask what the blazes is going on that hill.
In sworn testimony before the Finance and Public Administration Committee on Monday February 24, 2025, the entire Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) executive team claimed it had no “institutional knowledge” of their department having been sued by journalist Marcus Reubenstein in 2021.
This was the quintessential “I know nuthink” routine memorialised by Sergeant Shultz of Hogan’s Heroes fame.
The fact that the department had been sued for vicarious liability for work hours’ defamation and copyright breaches, on the part of their current employee Geoff Wade, jogged no memories. Which is funny, because Wade is now suing this publication MWM, and had threatened Reubenstein, MWM and three others four years ago.
In the previous frenzy of litigation by the DPS staffer, Reubenstein had counterclaimed against Wade and the Commonwealth. Ergo the settlement by the Commonwealth (which appears to have leaked via a data breach by the Government’s lawyers HWL Ebsworth whose data had been stolen by Russian hackers software – more on that later).
So to the mystery of the prolific litigation activities of the DPS library researcher Geoff Wade and the blithe lack of knowledge of it on the part of his bosses.
I know nuthink
Last Monday, the DPS top brass were questioned by Senator David Shoebridge in Senate Estimates:
Shoebridge – Thank you for your attendance. Mr [Steven] Fox (DPS) might be best placed to answer. In 2021, DPS was sued by journalist Marcus Reubenstein in relation to a series of publications that were made by Dr Geoffrey Wade while he was working, and on the company dime.
Do you remember that legal action against DPS Steven Fox?
Fox – Thank you. Good morning. I was not in the role in that period. I have been in that role for about 18 months. It precedes my time.
Shoebridge – Do you remember the litigation against DPS?
Fox – No. I do not.
Shoebridge – Alright. Does anyone have institutional memory of the proceedings?
Fox – There’s no-one here that was here at the time but we can answer your questions and take them on notice.
And that they did, amid a heated exchange between Senator Shoebridge and the President of the Senate Sue Lines whose role includes oversight of DPS.
But was there really “no-one here at the time”? Apart from the fact that many of them were there at the time, the name Dianne Heriot appeared on the Hansard transcript as being present at the proceedings.
Dr Heriot was then Parliamentary Librarian; she was succeeded by Steven Fox.
Questions to DPS finally elicited an answer on Friday.
Top bureaucrats shifty to Parliament over library litigation frenzy
