Short version of the story is this - (lefty) Youtube political shitposter Friendlyjordies has been targeting the NSW state deputy premier John Barilaro in his videos for the last year or two because the guy is corrupt and incompetent as fuck. On top of the usual pay-to-play, misuse of state funds and using connections in the government to block inquiries into his dealings (he literally called himself the 'Pork Barrel King' at some point), he was personally responsible for the severity of the last devestating bushfire season - he cut funding and slashed the workforce of the Rural Fire Service to the point where they weren't able to perform preventative backburning, then blamed the RFS for not doing the backburning.
Anyway, FJ did his usual reporting on the guy interspersed with shitty autistic jokes (it's worth noting that he brings up Barilaro's Italian descent because Barilaro regularly changes his identity between Bush Battler and poor Italian immigrant depending on the audience, leading to claims of racism) and Barilaro started the process to sue him for defamation and slander. FJ didn't take it too seriously given the claims of corruption are all publicly documented and the rest of it, well, was just general shitposting (further, Barilaro sent the accusations to the press before even serving FJ). He turned up to a community event Barilaro was holding dressed as Luigi to ask why he's being sued and got kicked out. He then went on to rent an 'investment property' that Barilaro owned (through AirBNB) and shot a video there to demonstrate how rich Barilaro had made himself through those shady dealings.
Upon receiving the paperwork, FJ's lawyer advised him that it was invalid given that Barilaro had listed his home address as Parliament House (it's not a residential address and Barilaro works for NSW, not the federal government). One of the channel's researchers, who had also been present at the Luigi event, spotted Barilaro leaving a funeral and tried to askhim to update the paperwork, but Barilaro ignored him and got in his car.
A few days later the Counterterrorism force, specifically the 'Fixated Persons Unit'* turned up on his doorstep, arrested him for stalking, wrestled with his mother and 'nearly killed his dog'. According to the report the AFP gave after releasing him on bail, a complaint was made after he approached Barilaro after the funeral that characterised the encounter as aggressive. It made claims that were entirely false given that he'd recorded the entire exchange, so it'll be interesting to see how that goes in court.
*'Fixated Persons Unit' is literally a thoughtcrime unit. It targets people that even the counter-terror apparatus has no interest in; people 'fixated' on or interested in wrongthink like political Islam, ethnonationalism or similar. Their work is mostly monitoring and making lists.
The following users say it would be alright if the author of this
post didn't die in a fire!
aldra is guilty of several thought crimes, he's also a highly influential influencer in the dark arts, voldemort himself won't even call him back anymore
