Andrew Bolt leaves it up to his employer to decide on whether to appeal

Andrew Bolt

Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt leaves the Federal Court in Melbourne. Picture: AAP
Source: AAP




ANDREW Bolt will not ask The Herald Sun to appeal against last week’s Federal Court decision that he breached the Racial Discrimination Act.


He said yesterday that the decision needed to be made by his employer without his input.

“To be honest, talking about anything to do with the courts at the moment makes me feel sick,” the Melbourne columnist said.

“It’s not a decision I’m happy to make or even influence. It’s not my money, I don’t want them to feel any sort of obligation, that they are obliged to me for personal reasons. It has to be much more hard-headed than that.”

Bolt said he would continue to express his views, even though he remained concerned about the prospect of limitation on what he can say about some issues.

The Herald and Weekly Times, publisher of The Herald Sun, also found to have breached the act, is receiving legal advice on whether to appeal to the full court of the Federal Court. The company has held one meeting about whether to appeal, for which there are strong internal advocates. It is expected to make a decision this week.

In a carefully worded judgment on Wednesday, Justice Mordecai Bromberg found Bolt had acted unlawfully when he wrote two newspaper columns in 2009 asking why “light-skinned Aborigines” chose to identify themselves as black and expressed his view that some such individuals did so for personal gain.

The court verdict has polarised both left and right-wing commentators with many questioning the the validity of section 18C of the act. Shadow attorney-general George Brandis said a future Coalition government would alter the act to prevent such cases.

Bolt said he was cautious about any decision to appeal on the basis that even a victory could lead to more damage for him. “You could win and a judge might wish to take a step out of the crease and take a whack and so even though the company wins, I personally then lose,” he said.

“So all those calculations I don’t want to think about.”

Bolt remains emotional and angry about the case, but he indicated his view that any appeal should be upheld. “The opinion I have is that if the judgment stands, this is not the country I recognise,” he said.

“People think I’m exaggerating, but in my view, we would be walking faster, jogging, to a future in which racial division and sensitivities would be even further exaggerated and the ability to discuss or push back becomes severely limited.”

The judgment highlighted a number of basic errors in Bolt’s journalism, errors that meant he could not use the defence of fair comment. Bolt said he had quickly corrected some of those errors and was being derided by many in the media for views not consistent with his beliefs.

“I have been called a liar, I’m shoddy, I’m slipshod, I’m terrible, I’m nasty and I’m a racist,” he said.

“In The Sunday Age today I’m portrayed as someone who is a cross between the Klu Klux Klan and the Nazis. They are free to say that and I find that obviously extremely offensive. That is exactly the opposite of what I was arguing.

“I wasn’t arguing for racial divisions as was said in The Sunday Age, I wasn’t arguing against people interbreeding, a grotesquely offensive suggestion. I was arguing exactly the opposite.”

 

He said even some of those defending him had incorrectly understood his position, including Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes.

“I do not like being defended on the grounds every racist should be able to speak,” he said.

“I am not a racist, my message was anti-racist and my message has always been consistent.”

Bolt said he was feeling self-pity over the decision, something he needed to “get over; I dish it out so I’ve got to take it”.

Fellow News Limited columnist David Penberthy, writing yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, attacked Bolt.

“I am not inclined to defend Andrew Bolt to the death. Not even close. . . I am sick of seeing Bolt being held up as if he were a company spokesman. He is no such thing.”

But Bolt said he was overwhelmed with support and vowed to carry on expressing his views.

“I’ve done a fair bit I think to push the boundaries, and now people say you should do this, you should do that,” he said.

“Well, maybe I should — it’s not up to me, it’s up to The Herald Sun because it’s their money.

“But how about those people do something? If our free speech depends on me in the end, then we really are stuffed. Maybe some other people could start lifting some weights as well.”

 

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