The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, has issued a defamation writ against the Opposition spokesman for the arts, Senator Michael Baume, over statements made on Melbourne radio.
The statements were concerning Mr Keating’s half share in the Brown and Hatton piggery.
The writ led the shadow attorney-general, Peter Costello, to say: “”Paul Keating has opened his election campaign with a stop writ.”
Senator Baume’s statements were made on 3AW. Unusually, Mr Keating’s writ is only against Senator Baume and not the radio station as well.
The piggery is in an $80 million joint venture with the Danish Group Danpork. The joint venture is expected to provide 200 jobs using Danish technology and cheaper Australian feed and land to produce pork for Asian markets. Senator Baume’s statements related to an announcement by the NSW Government on the eligibility of the joint venture for funding under arrangements announced under the One Nation statement.
One Nation was Mr Keating’s initiative to boost the Australian economy and was his Government’s answer to the Opposition’s Fightback program.
The writ was issued out of the NSW Supreme Court and served on Senator Baume yesterday. The statement of claim said Senator Baume’s statements carried the following imputations about Mr Keating: that he “”had broken the obligations of his office as Prime Minister and betrayed the trust placed in him by the Australian people by introducing the One Nation policy so as to obtain substantial tax benefits for a company in which he had an interest”; that Mr Keating had “”introduced the One Nation policy not for any proper public purpose but so as to provide for himself a private financial benefit”; that he had “”preferred his own private financial interest to the interest of the Australian people when he introduced the One Nation policy”; that he had an “”impermissible conflict of interest”.
The statement of claim asserted that Mr Keating had be “”brought into public scandal, ridicule and contempt and has suffered and will continue to suffer loss and damage.”
Mr Keating asserted malice on the part of Senator Baume and improper purpose in damaging Mr Keating’s reputation for political advantage.
Senator Baume said yesterday, “”It’s the classic stop writ.”
But it would not stop him from doing his duty as a senator in questioning matters of public interest and he hoped it would not stop the media from doing its job, too. Mr Keating was trying to stifle debate just before the election. The Australian people had a right to know the full details of Mr Keating’s piggery interests which had been unanswered to date judging by responses given to his questions about it in the Parliament.
The case might provide a forum to get those answers, he said.
It is understood that it is the first time an Australian Prime Minister has sued an Opposition Member of Parliament for libel. In the early 1970s the then Prime Minister John Gorton sued journalist Max Walsh and the ABC over statements Mr Walsh made about Mr Gorton’s attitude to the then Minister for Defence Malcolm Fraser. It was the only time a Prime Minister’s libel action went to court. Mr Gorton lost his case in three jurisdictions and won it in another three, winning about $7000 in damages.
The former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, has sued many times, but never went all the way to court, preferring to settle. He was quoted as saying he had a Fairfax swimming pool and a Packer tennis court.
Senator Baume said yesterday: “”There won’t be a Baume tennis court or a Baume swimming pool at the Keating household.”
Mr Costello said this should not prevent legitimate discussion of the issues.
Mr Keating’s performance in Parliament demonstrated his ability to excel in vilification, but “”now he wants to cry foul and go to the courts”.
“”Well, if he wants to take it to court all aspects need to come out,” Mr Costello said. “”He can’t hive off one aspect.”
In Parliament Senator Baume has questioned the accounts of the piggery group and those of Euphron Pty Ltd, the ultimate holding company in which Mr Keating and his family hold a half share. Euphron’s publicly available accounts show that Mr Keating and his family bought their share in May, 1991, when Mr Keating was still Treasurer for $430,100. In the same financial year the accounts showed that the value of their share had risen to $4.2 million.
After the Australian Securities Commission called for audited accounts of the group, the group filed audited accounts last month. These put the value of the group at some $1.9 million less than the unaudited accounts, but that has not yet been recorded in amended accounts of Euphron Pty Ltd.
In the past year several sets of accounts have been presented for the group. When the audited ones were presented, directors said they had been under the misapprehension that audited accounts had not been required because Brown and Hatton Group had converted to a private company during the financial year. They said they would institute procedures to ensure ASC requirements were complied with in future.
The several sets of accounts dealt in several different ways with money outstanding to the former part owner of the group John Brown, a former Minster for Tourism.
This led Senator Baume to assert in Parliament that the accounts were false.
It was also suggested in Parliament that quarantine officials had given expeditious treatment to Danpork in its application to import pigs and pig semen to Australia. Quarantine officials denied this under oath during committee hearings.
The piggery issue was raised only once in the House of Representatives, during debate on a Bill and not during Question Time. Questions have not been directly put to Mr Keating in Parliament at question time.
The case will come before the court on February 18. However, it is usual in these sorts of cases for nothing of substance to be mentioned then. In defamation cases it is rare for any argument or evidence to come before the court for at least a year.