Groth v Herald & Weekly Times (VID 1130/2025) First directions hearing. Orders made for interlocutory hearing on 6 November 2025
November 1, 2025
At the first directions hearing on 30 October 2025 in the Federal Court proceeding of SAM GROTH and another v THE HERALD AND WEEKLY TIMES PTY LTD and others the Respondent succeeded to have an application to determine whether the journalist exemption applies. The hearing will occur on 6 November 2025. The directions hearing is reported by the Guardian in News Corp had no first-hand source suggesting Sam Groth’s wife underage at start of relationship, MP’s lawyer tells court, the AFR with News Corp allegedly claimed to be writing puff piece on Groths, and 9 News with ‘Salacious gossip’ or news? Tennis star turned MP to test new privacy law (to name but 3 stories).
The orders made Justice MceLwaine are:
- The interlocutory application of the respondent accepted for filing on 2 October 2025 is set down for hearing at 30am on 6 November 2025.
- Any evidence proposed to be relied upon by the respondent at the hearing of the interlocutory application is to be in the form of an affidavit which is to be filed and served by 4pm on 4 Novemebr 2025.
- Any evidence proposed to be relied upon by the applicant at the hearing of the interlocutory application is to be in the form of an affidavit which is to be filed and served by 12pm on 5 November 2025.
- The matter be set down for hearing in Melbourne at 15am on 11 May 2026, with an estimate of 10 days.
- The parties are to attend a mediation to be organised by the parties, such mediation to take place on 7 November 2025.
The Guardian article provides:
Australia’s new privacy laws to be tested as Victorian Liberal MP and wife Brittany Groth sue over Herald Sun articles
A News Corp journalist had “not one piece of information” to suggest the deputy Victorian Liberal leader, Sam Groth, began a relationship with his wife when she was underage, the MP’s lawyers have told a court.
In what a federal court judge described as a “test case” for Australia’s new privacy laws, Groth and his wife, Brittany, are suing the Herald and Weekly Times (HWT), reporter Stephen Drill and the Herald Sun’s editor, Sam Weir, over a series of articles published in July.
The articles allege the couple met at a tennis club in suburban Melbourne and began a sexual relationship when Brittany was 16 or 17 and Sam – then a professional player – was 23 or 24 and working as her coach, the court has been told.