9—Certain corporations do not have cause of action for defamation
(1) A corporation has
no cause of action for defamation in relation to the publication of defamatory
matter about the corporation unless it was an excluded corporation at the time
of the publication.
(2) A corporation is
an "excluded corporation" if—
(a) the
objects for which it is formed do not include obtaining financial gain for its
members or corporators; or
(b) it
employs fewer than 10 persons and is not related to another corporation,
and the corporation is not a public body.
(3) In counting
employees for the purposes of subsection (2)(b), part-time employees are
to be taken into account as an appropriate fraction of a full-time equivalent.
(4) In determining
whether a corporation is related to another corporation for the purposes of
subsection (2)(b), section 50 of the Corporations Act 2001 of the
Commonwealth applies as if references to bodies corporate in that section were
references to corporations within the meaning of this section.
(5)
Subsection (1) does not affect any cause of action for defamation that an
individual associated with a corporation has in relation to the publication of
defamatory matter about the individual even if the publication of the same
matter also defames the corporation.
(6) In this
section—
"corporation" includes any body corporate or corporation constituted by or
under a law of any country (including by exercise of a prerogative right),
whether or not a public body;
"public body" means a local government body or other governmental or public
authority constituted by or under a law of any country.