Assignment task: Philippa has recently been employed as a public relations consultant with a firm in Perth, TDP Promotions Pty Ltd ('TDP'). On her second month in the job she is asked to assist with organising and promoting a corporate seminar for one of the firm's clients, Wow! Pty Ltd ('Wow'). On the day of the seminar Philippa is unhappy about the way that one of the male managers of Wow treats her. She feels that the man, whose name is Buster, treats her with disrespect because she is young and female. Philippa is also of the view that Buster's flirtatious behaviour in front of the other managers amounts to sexual harassment.
The next day, while in the office, Philippa decides to tell her friend Billie, who works in the accounts department at TDP, how she feels about Buster. She writes the following text in a word document:
"OMG yesterday was soooo bad. The guy from Wow was literally disgusting. A total pervert. Stupid, sexist, misogynist man with ugly pin-striped suit and a stupid Sponge Bob tie (no joke) .... Honestly, he spent the whole day trying to score a look down my top. Bet he's some pervert or paedophile or something.'
Philippa copies and pastes the text above from her word document into an email to Billie.
Later that day, when Philippa is very busy, she receives an email from a Peter at Wow thanking her for organising the seminar and asking her to attach TDP's invoice. A number of other people at TDP and Wow, including Buster, are copied in on the email.
Philippa hits 'reply all' to the email. She writes, 'Dear Peter. Thank you for your email. We're all delighted that the seminar went so well. I attach our invoice and look forward to working with you again.' Then Philippa uses the keyboard shortcut 'CTRL+V' with the intention of attaching the invoice. However, Philippa forgets that the last item on the clipboard is the text of the email she sent to Billie. In her haste and before she even has chance to realise it, Philippa has pressed 'send' on the email. The text that Philippa sent to Billie has now been sent to various individuals within TDP and Wow, including Buster. Philippa is mortified but takes a small amount of comfort in the fact that she didn't name Buster in her email.
Buster is now threatening to sue Philippa in defamation for Philippa's comment.
Advise TDP whether it is likely that Buster would succeed in establishing the elements of a defamation action against Philippa. You do NOT need to discuss defences.