A Fairfax Media article that began “No one is saying Joe Hockey is corrupt” was an attempt to portray the treasurer as exactly that, a court has heard.
Hockey’s barrister Bruce McClintock SC told the federal court on Wednesday that a May 2014 analysis piece written by Fairfax political correspondent Mark Kenny contained “a clear allegation that Mr Hockey is corrupt”.
Kenny’s piece accompanied a news article by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Sean Nicholls that was headlined: “Treasurer for sale.”
The story investigated the North Sydney Forum (NSF), a political fundraising organisation in Hockey’s North Sydney electorate that offers fee-paying members attendance at boardroom lunches with the treasurer and other VIP events.
Hockey is suing Fairfax Media for defamation over the article, which he says implied he was corrupt and left him “devastated”.
McClintock asked Kenny whether his 5 May analysis piece used the “old journalistic device” of publishing a denial of an allegation to put it before readers.
McClintock said the corruption allegation was made in a subsequent sentence that read: “It is increasingly clear the treasurer is part to a process that is corrupting Australia’s democratic integrity.”
Kenny said he emphatically disagreed with the implication of corruption.
The court has heard the NSF charges membership fees of up to $22,000 which go as political donations to the Liberal party of Australia.
Major corporations and industry lobby groups are among the current and former members of the organisation.
McClintock said Fairfax’s story – which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age under the “treasurer for sale” headline – was an “absolutely massive beat-up” because members of the NSF received no special privileges.
McClintock challenged Nicholls’s assertion in the 5 May story that Hockey was “offering privileged access to a select group” of people in return for “tens of thousands of dollars in donations to the Liberal party”.
McClintock said what members of the NSF got in terms of access to Hockey was “absolutely no different” to what Hockey made available to people when he spoke at a Rotary Club function or any of the 400 events he attended each year.
Nicholls replied: “Not everybody pays tens of thousands of dollars to secure that access.”
He said he thought the “treasurer for sale” headline was a fair summary of the article.
Hockey’s lawyers claim the article, along with newsagent placards and messages on Twitter, was published as an act of “petty spite” after the treasurer sought and obtained an apology for an article published two months earlier.
A text message from the Age editor-in-chief said a subsequent story on NSF could run a statement from Hockey that he knew nothing and “beyond that, f... him”.
“Amazing, they freeze us out then think they have a relationship,” Andrew Holden’s message said.
Kenny said he believed Holden’s message was a reference to “favourable treatment of competing media organisations as compared to Fairfax”.
Hockey, who arrived at the court after lunch to watch proceedings, has previously testified that Fairfax was running “a relentless campaign” against him.
The hearing continues on Thursday.