Defamation Case against Fairfax Media’s Harrison Vesey

We received a statement from our lead candidate in the recent Blacktown City
Council. We publish it as requested.

An article  entitled ‘Refugee “influx” targeted’ was published on Tuesday
September 06,2016 by the ‘St Marys-Mt Druitt Star’. It was written by
Harrison Vesey. Sections of the article were erroneously and purposely
published with misleading information to the public.

I was sent an email on Wed, Sep 7, 2016 at 7.05 PM. The email read:

“The main thing I would to know is if you are married to Scott Orrock.
I am planning to publish that you are married to Scott Orrock and that your
former business, The Rouge, was fined for breaching council development consent.
You have one hour to respond or we’re going to say no comment”.

I was unable to respond as the office of the Australian First Party was
closed and giving someone one hour to respond to an email is unfair and
un-Australian to say the least.

Mr Harrison Vesey is employed or writes for FairFax Media. I am currently
unable to comment on certain aspects of the article as I am a plaintiff in
the Supreme Court in a defamation case against Fairfax Media Publications Pty
Limited.

The article dated Wed, 7, 2016 further states:

“She was fined by the City of Sydney for breaching her liquor licence and the
council’s development consent”.

The City of Sydney has never fined me for “breaches of my liquor licence” as
they have not the authority to do so. I was also never fined by “The City of
Sydney for development consent breaches” as claimed in the article by Mr
Harrison Vesey.

He, perhaps in his haste to discredit me, has relied upon an earlier article
published by Fairfax Media which is the very article that has caused the
initial legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Therefore, he had already planned to publish claims of imaginary City of
Sydney fines supposedly breached by my previous business – without first
establishing the validity of its truth by conveniently sending his email so
late (7.05 pm). The purpose of the threatening email was to deliberately
publish misleading information to discredit me as a candidate for the
Blacktown Council elections.

Mr Harrison Vesey a journalist for Fairfax Media has deliberately published
misleading information by writing that I was “fined by The City of Sydney
Council for breaching her liquor licence and the councils development
consent”. It is evident that he has no comprehension of the Liquor Licensing
laws of New South Wales or the powers of City of Sydney Council.

Cassie Orrock.