An Australian scandal is a like a sudden southerly on a clear summer’s day – unexpected, jarring and liable to leave everyone shivering in its wake. From political pitfalls to celebrity slip-ups and the ever-rumbling corridors of Parliament House, we are a nation that guards privacy with one hand and refreshes newsfeeds with the other.

Little wonder, then, that a show like Bridgerton – with its heaving corsets, whispered secrets and illicit entanglements – has a devoted fan base here. It’s not just the drama that captivates us, but the tension between the private and the public, discretion and spectacle.

Bridgerton captivates Australian audiences with the tension between private and public, discretion and spectacle.Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix

While fans must wait until 2026 for the next episode, take heart “dearest gentle reader”: whispers among case-starved defamation lawyers suggest a new kind of drama is set to unfold. From Tuesday, a new statutory tort of privacy makes its debut on the Australian legal stage – and it’s expected to dance to a familiar tune.

Australians who suffer a serious invasion of privacy may claim up to $478,000 in damages and seek remedies including injunctions. As the age of unchecked intrusion draws to a genteel close, Lady Whistledown herself might remark that society’s most prominent figures will breathe easier behind their velvet curtains. Or so they may think.

As far back as 1960, US professor William Prosser identified four privacy torts: intrusion upon seclusion; public disclosure of private facts; false light portrayal; and appropriation of likeness. By 1977, all four were recorded in the US Restatement of Torts,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald