02.02.10 Victorious Gunns20 call on Gunns and Victoria to stop the SLAPP

Victorious ex-defendants from the original Gunns20 lawsuit gathered on the steps of the Victorian Supreme Court today to celebrate the end of the case and call on Gunns to cease their legal proceedings against 13 people accused of protesting at Gunns Triabunna woodchip mill (‘the Triabunna 13’) in January 2009.

Gunns Ltd, Australia’s largest woodchipper,agreed last week to drop the case against the four remaining Gunns20 defendants and pay them $155,088, and the infamous five-year long case officially ended yesterday when the paperwork was filed in the Victorian Supreme Court.

“The result in the Gunns20 case was a victory for free speech and Tasmania’s forests. Gunns ought to take this opportunity to improve their corporate image by immediately dropping their case against the Triabunna 13”, said Adam Burling defendant #1

Peg Putt, former Tasmanian Greens leader and Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly said:
“The Gunns 20 defendants decided to be public and feisty and to fight all the way in order to undermine any apprehension that we would be silenced by the Gunns action. We also felt a duty not only to each other (after Gunns introduced us all) but to do our best to ensure that others would not in future feel intimidated.”

The Gunns20 are writing to Attorney-General Rob Hulls asking him to take anti-SLAPP legislation to the Victorian Parliament.