'Powerful reasons' sink PM defo action THE Victorian Court of Appeal had "powerful reasons" for knocking back an appeal bid by Victorian unionist John Setka in his defamation stoush with Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Mr Setka, the Victorian secretary of the CFMEU, is suing Mr Abbott over comments the then opposition leader made during a televised address at the Master Builders Association of Victoria in February last year. Mr Abbott is defending the claim on the grounds of truth. The state's Court of Appeal last week rejected Mr Setka's application to appeal to have part of Mr Abbott's defence struck out. Mr Setka's lawyers had argued Mr Abbott's defence was based on bad law. In reasons published on Tuesday, Chief Justice Marilyn Warren, Justice David Ashley and Justice Simon Whelan said there were powerful reasons against granting the application to appeal given it dealt with new arguments. "Even in the case of a final judgment, a court will not ordinarily entertain an appeal on the basis of a point of law which was not advanced below," the justices stated. The court outlined a further eight reasons for its decision. It has reserved a ruling on costs sought by Mr Abbott's lawyers. The Victorian Supreme Court had previously dismissed a similar appeal from Mr Setka, when his legal team argued that parts of Mr Abbott's speech were factually incorrect. Mr Setka claims Mr Abbott defamed him and caused grave injury, humiliation, embarrassment, loss and damage. Broadcaster Sky News is also being sued for televising the remarks. The case will return to the Supreme Court at a date to be fixed.