Changes to Defamation Law

On 31 July 2025, the Defamation Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (NT) (the Amendment Act) was passed by the Legislative Assembly.
The Amendment Act amends the Defamation Act 2006 (NT) (the Act), the Limitation Act 1981 and the Local Court (Criminal Procedure) Act 1928.

The Amendment Act commenced on 11 August 2025, meaning that the law is binding from that date.
This factsheet summarises the key amendments made by the Amendment Act.

What is Defamation

Defamation law exists primarily to protect against reputational damage from the publication of false statements whilst balancing the right to free speech.

Background

Defamation law across Australia is uniform. This means that the laws in each State and Territory are largely the same.

In the early 2000’s the States and Territories of Australia jointly developed “Model Defamation Provisions” (MDP) to be enacted by the States and Territories.  This resulted in the Act coming into effect in the Northern Territory (NT) in 2006 .

In 2018, representatives from the States and Territories of Australia met and approved commencement of a multi-stage review of defamation law in Australia. This review was completed in September 2023. From this review, the States and Territories agreed on uniform amendments to the MDP.

The Amendment Act brings into effect the agreed uniform amendments to the MDPs.

Key Amendments

The key amendments to the Act include:

• Narrowing the time limit to commence proceedings against the publisher of defamatory material to one year from the date of the first publication.
• Increasing the threshold of defamation by requiring any publication of defamatory material to cause “serious harm”. For more information see Serious harm factsheet DOCX (57.7 KB).
• Expanding on the defences available in response to a legal action in defamation. For more information see New Defences factsheet DOCX (58.1 KB).
• Clarifying liability of digital third-party intermediaries. For more information see Digital Intermediaries liability factsheet DOCX (58.0 KB).
• Introduction of mandatory steps to be taken before a claim can be brought before the Court. For more information see Pre-litigation steps factsheet %asset_summary_1555916.