John Barilaro has accused Google of “defaming him further” it its cross-examination of the former MP.
Mr Barilaro is suing the tech giant for damages because he claims it refused to remove two defamatory videos posted to its YouTube website by Friendlyjordies comedy and political commentary content creators.
In the Federal Court on Wednesday Mr Barilaro was grilled by Google’s barrister James Hmelnitsky SC who asked Mr Barilaro about the state of mind he was in when the videos were first released.
The court heard Mr Barilaro had threatened to quit NSW Cabinet and walk away from a Coalition with the Liberals because of a dispute aboxjmtzywut koala policy around the time the videos went up on YouTube.
He agreed the videos, which depicted Mr Barilaro as a bribe-taking corrupt conman and mocked his Italian heritage, came out when he was in a “fragile” state because of the dispute within the government and the death of his father in August 2020.
When questioned about another Friendlyjordies video posted in December 2021, around the time Google offered to settle the case, Mr Barilaro agreed he had not asked Google to take that video down until after a deadline to reject or accept the settlement offer had expired in January 2022.
This was despite him telling the court previously that he felt Google never acted on complaints about the video because it wanted to pressure him to take accept the settlement offer.
Played in court, the video in question, labelled only with a tongue emoji and no name, included brief excerpts of evidence Mr Barilaro gave to a NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) probe into former premier Gladys Berejiklian.
The excerpt showed Mr Barilaro being asked about the disclosure of intimate relationships and it was followed by Friendlyjordies star Jordan Shanks explaining how someone purporting to be Mr Barilaro had an account on the Ashley Madison website which facilitates extramarital affairs.
Mr Barilaro has denied having account on the website and Mr Shanks said in the video it was possible someone else could have created the account.
“For me it felt like another video that was just another video of harassment if anything,” Mr Barilaro said.
“I don’t recall it actually saying that I wasn’t being truthful.
“It reflects on an Ashley Madison account, it reflects on evidence at ICAC, it leaves it in the air for the public to consider what was in the video, it leaves it hanging … it’s the sort of horrible video I’ve received consistently. He [Mr Shanks] covers himself and qualifies himself very very well.”
Mr Hmelnitsky told Mr Barilaro “there’s never been any suggestion by you that there’s any defamation imputation in that video about evidence you gave”.
“You’ve never told Google in any other way that you think the video was defamatory of you so far as it deals with your ICAC evidence.
“You didn’t tell Google a reason to take it down, save for what we saw. Giving Google an extra very good reason to take the video down might have helped.”
Mr Barilaro, whose marriage ended last year before it was revealed he commenced a relationship with his former media adviser, said “at some point in time you’ve got to focus on what you call out”.
“In my mind Mr Shanks qualified everything he said which I thought was clever on his behalf,” Mr Barilaro told the court.
The court heard Google had previously removed a different video which accused Mr Barilaro of adultery.
Mr Barilaro’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC said Mr Hmelnitsky’s questions to Mr Barilaro “culminated in a suggestion” that Mr Barilaro had lied to ICAC.
When asked how he felt about the questions, Mr Barilaro said he was “taken by surprise”.
“The defence from Google seems to be to defame me further, that’s how I feel this morning,” he said.
“I just want this all to end. I’ve had enough.”
The hearing continues.
