Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) This Act applies
to the publication of defamatory matter after the commencement of this Act,
unless subsection (2) provides otherwise.
(2) The provisions of
this Act (other than this section) do not apply to a cause of action for the
publication of defamatory matter that accrues after the commencement of this
Act (the post-commencement action ) if —
(a) the
post-commencement action is one of 2 or more causes of action in proceedings
commenced by a plaintiff;
(b) each
cause of action in the proceedings accrues because of the publication of the
same, or substantially the same, matter on separate occasions (whether by the
same defendant or another defendant);
(c) one
or more of the other causes of action in the proceedings accrued before the
commencement of this Act (a pre-commencement action ); and
(d) the
post-commencement action accrued no later than 12 months after the date on
which the earliest pre-commencement action in the proceedings accrued.
(3) The existing law
of defamation continues to apply to the following causes of action in the same
way as it would have applied to those causes of action had this Act not been
enacted —
(a) any
cause of action that accrued before the commencement of this Act;
(b) any
post-commencement action to which the other provisions of this Act do not
apply because of subsection (2).
(4) In this section
—
existing law of defamation means the law
(including all relevant statutory provisions and principles and rules of the
general law) that applied in this jurisdiction to the determination of civil
liability for the publication of defamatory matter immediately before the
commencement of this Act.