NT People Must Give a Concerns Notice Before Suing for Defamation, and Search Engines Cannot Be Held Liable for Defamatory Content

Defamation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025

31 Jul 2025: Passed by Parliament and signed off by the governor.

This bill kicks in: TBA

Share this bill

Email Facebook X Bluesky

Topics

civil liberties court procedures defamation digital intermediaries freedom of speech internet liability legal defenses online content online services

Introduced by: The Hon Marie-Clare Boothby MLA (CLP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

People cannot start defamation proceedings unless they first provide a concerns notice.
Digital intermediaries are exempt from liability for caching, conduit or storage services; this applies even if they knew the matter was defamatory.
Courts can order preliminary discovery to identify posters of digital matter.
Courts can order non-party digital intermediaries to remove or restrict digital matter.
Defendants can use the defence of contextual truth.
Defendants can use a scientific or academic journal defence for assessments published in the same journal.
Courts can extend the limitation period for a concerns notice based on the circumstances of the delay.
The court must decide if a digital service provider is exempt from liability as soon as possible before a trial starts, unless there are special reasons to wait.
When deciding whether to extend the time limit for a case because of a concerns notice, the court must consider all facts, including why the plaintiff delayed.

The Debate

What different members said when this bill was debated:

Marie-Clare Boothby CLP

“Madam Speaker, I present a Bill titled the Defamation Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, Serial 13, and table the explanatory statement. I move that the Bill be now read a first time.”

Official source →

Chanston Paech ALP

“Madam Speaker, the opposition will support this Bill. This Bill was developed and drafted by us when we were in government, so thank you to the government for acknowledging that we did the hard work. This is an important area of reform. We have seen across the country all jurisdictions doing the work to make sure that our defamation laws are contemporised and reflective of the world we live in.”

Official source →

Tanzil Rahman CLP

“Madam Speaker, I am delighted to discuss this Bill, which has been on the Notice Paper for some time. I am also pleased that the opposition has chosen to support the Bill, but provided some pointed remarks about it. It is true that these are long-overdue reforms.”

Official source →