Andrew Stoner drops defamation suit against Alan Jones and Greens MP
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Version 0 of 1. The former NSW deputy premier and former state Nationals leader, Andrew Stoner, has dropped defamation proceedings against the broadcaster Alan Jones and the Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham. The proceedings were brought over comments about Stoner’s actions in relation to coal seam gas and coal mining projects. Related: NSW deputy premier Troy Grant calls for coal seam gas ban in northern rivers Jones was not in court to see Justice Lucy McCallum order the proceedings be vacated, but Buckingham was in the public gallery and spoke outside court. “This is a great day for me personally and, I think, for free speech in NSW,” Buckingham said. “There were no conditions on the settlement. We did not provide an apology, we are not paying any of Andrew Stoner’s costs, and he didn’t get one red bloody cent out of the Greens, myself or Alan Jones ... We’re claiming it as a profound victory.” The case was withdrawn days after Buckingham and Jones filed their defence, which Stoner’s lawyers sought to block from public release because it was “scandalous”. It is understood the defendants’ lawyers had indicated their intention to cross-examine Stoner about recent revelations he had been targeted by online extortionists while in office. Buckingham said the suit, launched in response to a series of monologues and interviews on Jones’s radio show, was a “political attack” that should never have been brought. The claims aired included that the since-retired MP was “gutless” and favoured the mining industry’s interests over those of the community. “This case came within days of the election, when both Mr Jones and myself were vigorously holding the government to account over the issues of coalmining in the Liverpool Plains, coal seam gas, and [the Coalition’s] standards of governance,” he said. |