On Friday, BuzzFeed's barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, told the Federal Court the parties were "very close" to settling and he was confident that there would be a resolution "one way or the other, hopefully in favour of the conclusion of the matter" by next week.

The matter was adjourned until July 29 to allow discussions to continue.

Ms Husar's barrister Sandy Dawson, SC, said he was "equally hopeful" the matter would be resolved and added the discussions centred on "the wording of a clause" rather than anything more substantive.

Mr Dawson said that, in the event that talks fell apart, a trial in the matter was expected to go for at least four weeks.

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Justice Steven Rares described the ongoing dispute as a "minor hiccup" and said it would be a "great shame" if a resolution could not be reached.

"It's obviously desirable that parties work towards finalisation," he said.

At a preliminary hearing in February, Justice Rares urged the parties to consider mediation, saying if the "complicated" and "expensive" case went to trial, "a lot of collateral damage might be done to a whole lot of people".

As she left court, Ms Husar told reporters: "The court's just been advised that the matter's close to settling, so until that matter is finalised it's inappropriate to otherwise make any comments. Thanks very much."

Ms Husar said in court documents that the BuzzFeed publications conveyed a range of false and defamatory imputations about her, including that she is "a slut who boasts about who she has had sex with, which includes other members of Parliament and members of her staff".

In a defence filed in court, BuzzFeed said it had not called Ms Husar a slut – a word that did not appear in its article – but, as a fall-back position, it initially adopted the high-stakes legal strategy of pleading truth to that claim.

The publisher subsequently dropped its truth defence to that claim, while maintaining a truth defence to other allegations pleaded by Ms Husar including that she was "sexually perverted" and "engaged in inappropriate sexualised behaviour toward her staff".

BuzzFeed's written defence alleged Ms Husar pressed "her right breast against [a male staffer's] left shoulder and arm" on two occasions in 2017, a claim she denied.

BuzzFeed also alleged in its defence that Ms Husar had crossed and uncrossed her legs to demonstrate she was not wearing underwear – described in the article at the centre of the case as a move "made famous" by Sharon Stone in the 1992 film Basic Instinct – in front of Labor frontbencher Jason Clare.

Ms Husar and Mr Clare have strenuously denied the claim.