In Australia, defamation refers to the body of law that aims to protect individuals, groups, and entities from false or damaging statements that may cause harm to their reputation or standing in society. Australian defamation law is defined through a combination of common law and statutory law. Between 2014 and 2018, Australia earned the title of “world defamation capital”, recording 10 times as many libel claims as the UK on a per-capita basis.[1]
Australia's common law is nationally uniform, and so principles and remedies for defamation are broadly consistent across the States and Territories. However, the application of local statutes result in slight differences in application amongst those jurisdictions.