Steven Joyce takes defamation over Hooton column to High Court

Monday, 9 December 2019

Former National minister Steven Joyce alleges NBR defamed him by publishing a column critical of his time in government.

Former National Minister Steven Joyce has told a court that a political column accusing him of blackmail had 'absolutely no basis in fact'.

A defamation trial centred on right-wing commentator Matthew Hooton's column for NBR got under way in the Auckland High Court on Monday.

Right-wing commentator Matthew Hooton later apologised for the column.

The article, written in March last year, was critical of Joyce's time in government.

Hooton later issued an apology as part of a legal settlement with Joyce. But NBR and its publisher Fourth Estate Holdings Ltd continue to defend against defamation claims from Joyce.

Joyce gave evidence on Monday at the Auckland High Court, saying the allegations against him in the column included blackmail, using former National minister Amy Adams as a 'proxy', and favouring telco Chorus in his political dealings.

'I have never blackmailed anyone whether to achieve my political objectives or otherwise,' Joyce said. 'I consider that Mr Hooton's statements about blackmail have absolutely no basis in fact.'

Joyce also stood by his claim of a $11.7 billion fiscal hole in Labour's budget ahead of the 2017 election, calling it an 'absolutely fair debating point in policy terms'.

'I put a lot of work into analysing the Labour party's projections. It was a genuine concern that I raised in the election campaign.'

In his opening submissions, Joyce's lawyer Zane Kennedy also described the events leading up to the column's publication.

Joyce was alerted to the column's scheduled publication and requested a draft copy from NBR publisher Todd Scott, said Kennedy.

The former Finance Minister read the article, considered it to be false and defamatory and expressed his concerns, but it had already gone to print. He then said if that was the case it shouldn't be published online, but it was.

Joyce's lawyers sent a letter to NBR seeking a retraction and apology, but no response was received.

Hooton also proposed to Scott and NBR that there should be a retraction, but that 'went nowhere', Kennedy said.

Following the column's publication, Scott published a number of tweets about it.

The tweets suggested 'Mr Hooton was wrong to have backed down and did so because he was avoiding a fight, not because he said something which was untrue or defamatory', said Kennedy.

'One can only conclude [from the tweets] that everything that was said about Mr Joyce was actually true. Although the author had retracted it and backed down, in fact it was wrong of him to do so.'

NBR stopped running Hooton's columns after the piece, but Scott said this decision had been made before it was written. Hooton now writes for the NZ Herald.

The online version of Hooton's column was replaced with his apology, which remains on the site.

The trial in front of Justice Pheroze Jagose continues.