The case confirms that publication of a restricted government report to a wide audience through a national magazine does not attract the traditional category of qualified privilege merely because the publisher has special knowledge of official exercise of public powers; the defence of fair and accurate report is a distinct and more specific defence that must be separately pleaded. Wilful blindness as to the falsity of published imputations — including failure to make inquiries of the subject of the publication — can amount to improper motive defeating both the extended Lange qualified privilege and statutory qualified protection defences. For the business records exception under s 69 of the Evidence Act 1995 (Cth), 'contemplation of proceedings' under s 69(3)(a) requires that proceedings be shown to have been likely or reasonably probable, not merely one possibility; and an internal departmental security investigation that can only recommend consideration of criminal proceedings is not an investigation 'relating or leading to a criminal proceeding' under s 69(3)(b).
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