Quadrant Online - Alan Jones interviews Michael Smith
Michael Smith: Immensely. It has been done through back channels, never through a direct legal approach. I know that on the morning that I was going to broadcast this matter, Julia Gillard herself phoned the CEO of News Ltd, John Hartigan and made three demands of him
Smith: You would have to be present in the conversation with Hartigan. What I was told by a very senior News Ltd executive is that threats were made by the Prime Minister to harm the interests of News Ltd if it didn’t comply with her direct demands of it. In my case, I worked for a radio station owned by Fairfax. Ten minutes before I was due to go to air after having recorded an interview with the former head of the union, Bob Kernohan, after having that exhaustively checked legally over the weekend and producing the various documents that my external defamation lawyer that Fairfax had engaged, required to substantiate the truth of the things we were saying. We had been right through that process, 2UE was promoting the fact that this interview was going to go to air, so it had been approved by 2UE management for broadcast. Ten minutes before I was going to air, a senior executive in Fairfax from Melbourne phoned and said you are not to broadcast it. And then it went on and on for a week or so. Ultimately they would not permit it to be broadcast or spoken about in any fashion. And you have to wonder what influence was brought to bear.
Jones: This union fellow Wilson, surely he can be located? Has he changed his name or appearance?
Smith: I have spoken with him, I know where he is, what job, what city.
Jones: He probably can’t speak without incriminating himself?
Smith: Absolutely right. If he is to speak, the man seeks protection and immunity. There are others far more senior than him who are involved in this matter. It goes to the heart of unionism and the power of unionism.
Jones: And the Thomson affair?
Smith: It is identical, Alan. Michael Williamson the HSU guy, who is in the slot himself. Williamson was to Craig Thomson exactly as another very senior union man, Bill Ludwig, was to this bloke Wilson.
Michael Smith: Immensely. It has been done through back channels, never through a direct legal approach. I know that on the morning that I was going to broadcast this matter, Julia Gillard herself phoned the CEO of News Ltd, John Hartigan and made three demands of him
- Hartigan withdraw a column that Glenn Milne had published in The Australian that day
- That The Australian apologise for that
- That News Ltd give her an undertaking that it would never again report in any way on websites or in its newspapers on this matter.
Smith: You would have to be present in the conversation with Hartigan. What I was told by a very senior News Ltd executive is that threats were made by the Prime Minister to harm the interests of News Ltd if it didn’t comply with her direct demands of it. In my case, I worked for a radio station owned by Fairfax. Ten minutes before I was due to go to air after having recorded an interview with the former head of the union, Bob Kernohan, after having that exhaustively checked legally over the weekend and producing the various documents that my external defamation lawyer that Fairfax had engaged, required to substantiate the truth of the things we were saying. We had been right through that process, 2UE was promoting the fact that this interview was going to go to air, so it had been approved by 2UE management for broadcast. Ten minutes before I was going to air, a senior executive in Fairfax from Melbourne phoned and said you are not to broadcast it. And then it went on and on for a week or so. Ultimately they would not permit it to be broadcast or spoken about in any fashion. And you have to wonder what influence was brought to bear.
Jones: This union fellow Wilson, surely he can be located? Has he changed his name or appearance?
Smith: I have spoken with him, I know where he is, what job, what city.
Jones: He probably can’t speak without incriminating himself?
Smith: Absolutely right. If he is to speak, the man seeks protection and immunity. There are others far more senior than him who are involved in this matter. It goes to the heart of unionism and the power of unionism.
Jones: And the Thomson affair?
Smith: It is identical, Alan. Michael Williamson the HSU guy, who is in the slot himself. Williamson was to Craig Thomson exactly as another very senior union man, Bill Ludwig, was to this bloke Wilson.
