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On ABC's Q&A last Monday night, Butler questioned whether Thwaites had actually written a Facebook post using the word "n-ggers" in relation to a dispute at an Indigenous computer lab at the Queensland University of Technology.

The student was cleared last month of writing the Facebook post, with a federal court judge satisfied with his explanation it had been posted by a fake Facebook account in his name.

He responded by filing a defamation suit against Butler, claiming the Labor MP had damaged his reputation on national TV by wrongfully linking him to the post and then days later calling him a "hypocrite" for his legal action.