Thank you to everyone who sent kind messages about winning my defamation suit against Mark Latham for his personal and sexually aggressive Tweet. The victory is a major relief for me, my family, my staff, and the LGBTQ community.

When Mr Latham published his Tweet, my life changed forever. The Tweet was, effectively a reductionist caricature of me which caused me enormous damage. I took legal action to repair my reputation and to stand up for myself, the LGBTQ community, and my family, while sending a clear message that these Trump-style personalised attacks on political opponents have no place in Australian public life.

Justice O’Callaghan remarked that he might be “forgiven for being lost for words to characterise many of the Tweets and comments” that Mr Latham’s Tweet exposed me to. I was inundated with hateful, threatening and abusive emails, letters and phone calls and some of these people have been charged with criminal offences with one so far been convicted.   

The judgment makes Australia a safer place for me, my community, and my parliamentary colleagues. It sends a clear message that you can’t attack a gay person based on their perceived sexual activities; you can’t cross the line when it comes to personalised political attacks, and you can’t just say whatever you like online without consequence.

The sad truth is the bullying and harassment that I experienced as a result of the Latham tweet is what LGBTQ people face every day in New South Wales, the state with the worst LGBTQ laws in Australia. I urge my parliamentary colleagues, especially the Premier, to stand with me and the entire LGBTQ community and improve this situation by backing my LGBTQ Equality Bill.