Treasurer for sale? Not me, Hockey tells court

Joe Hockey (right). Photo / Getty Images

Joe Hockey is not known as a sensitive flower. On the contrary, the Australian Treasurer loves a good brawl. But when Fairfax Media claimed that businesses and lobbyists could buy "privileged access" to him, he was so wounded that he is now seeking A$1 million ($1.04 million) or more to soothe his hurt feelings.

For much of the past fortnight, Hockey has been closeted not in his parliamentary offices preparing the nation's impending Budget, but in the Federal Court building in Sydney, where he is suing the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Canberra Times for impugning his reputation.

The defamation case was sparked by an article published last May, which - under the headline "Treasurer for sale" - alleged that members of a Liberal Party fundraising organisation based in Hockey's North Sydney electorate could pay up to A$22,000 a year for "privileged access" to him at boardroom lunches and VIP events.

Hockey told the court he was "stunned" and "absolutely devastated" when he saw the front-page story - so much so that, after picking up the Herald at a Canberra newsagency, he had to hide his face in a nearby cafe where copies of the papers were available for customers.

The implication of the headline and article, his lawyers argued, was that he was corrupt and "accepted bribes paid to influence the decisions he made" as Treasurer.

That has been rejected by the papers, which say they were highlighting issues relating to political donations: a subject of legitimate public interest.

The organisation at the centre of the case is the North Sydney Forum, which Hockey claims he thought was a chamber for small businesses based in the leafy, suburban area which he represents as an MP.

Although his face is - still - plastered all over the forum's website, he was unaware, he says, that its members included the likes of investment banks UBS and Deutsche Bank, the Australian Hotels Organisation and the Financial Services Council, some based interstate or even overseas.

And the forum's boast on its website that it was formed "to provide policy input for Joe Hockey" and was "vitally important to Joe's ongoing success" was "massively overplayed" and "misleading", the Treasurer said, under cross-examination.

A choice portion of the case - in which evidence concluded this week - focused on an exchange of emails between the Herald's editor-in-chief, Darren Goodsir, and the paper's NSW political editor, Sean Nicholls, who wrote the story.

The previous week, Goodsir and his counterpart at the Age, Andrew Holden, had been forced to apologise for a report claiming Hockey had been forced to repay thousands of dollars donated by a company under scrutiny for alleged corruption. In fact, the North Sydney Forum received and repaid the money.

After Nicholls briefed Goodsir on his investigation into links between Hockey and the Forum, Goodsir replied: "F***ing brilliant ... Given what Andrew and I endured last week with Hockey, I want to have this nailed to the cross in more ways than one." In court, Goodsir - who wrote the "Treasurer for sale" headline - denied wanting to "crucify" Hockey as an act of "revenge". He had merely meant that he wished the investigation to be detailed, professional and accurate, he said.

Hockey told the court that, after the article was published, his daughter "asked me if someone was trying to buy me", while his elderly father broke down in tears.

Hockey is seeking separate reparations from all three papers.