PM supports “hard working” Treasurer’s legal action against Fairfax on Budget eve

TONY Abbott today rejected suggestions Treasurer Joe Hockey was ignoring ministerial duties to fight a court action just a few weeks short of the Budget.

Pic of Federal Liberal M.PJoe Hockey entering Supreme court with his counsel today.Joe Hockey is suing Fairfax media over an article saying the treasurer should be jailed.

TONY Abbott today rejected suggestions Treasurer Joe Hockey was ignoring ministerial duties to fight a court action just a few weeks short of the Budget.

The Prime Minister said it was “pretty unreasonable” to suggest Mr Hockey wasn’t working “incredibly hard”.

Mr Hockey is suing Fairfax Media over last year’s May 5 front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and its story: “Treasurer for sale”. The story also featured in the Melbourne Age.

He is claiming he has been defamed by a claim he was corrupt and yesterday told a court the motivation was “petty spite” on the part of Fairfax. The publisher has denied the claim and given a “public interest” defence.

It was a dramatic and fiercely contested headline which bothered Mr Hockey around Budget time last year, and is doing so again in 2015.

“Well I think anyone who knows the Treasurer knows he was working all weekend,” Mr Abbott told reporters.

“So I suppose he’s maybe having a bit of time off in lieu today,” said Mr Abbott, referring to Mr Hockey’s appearance in the witness stand.

“But the fact is every member of this Government works incredibly hard, as you’d expect. Every member of this Government works incredibly hard and I think it’s pretty unreasonable, if I can say so, for people to start bandying around that kind of question.”

Pic of Federal Liberal M.PJoe Hockey walks with his wife Melissa Babbage as they leave Supreme court today.

The Treasurer gave evidence in the defamation case in Sydney today at what undoubtedly is a critical time for him personally and as Treasurer.

He launched a “national conversation” about economic policy last week after releasing the Intergenerational Report but has not been able to get it started.

And it’s a measure of Joe Hockey’s distress he was seated in a courtroom when a Treasurer usually is bent over the tangle of figures which will become the May Budget. Even when not in the courtroom Mr Hockey will be finding time to keep track of proceedings.

There is no doubting how upset Joe Hockey is. He has told the court of a tearful reaction from his father and how his daughter had been upset by the suggestion he was for sale.

So as he prepared to deliver his first Budget last May Mr Hockey was reeling from what he saw as an allegation he “accepted bribes paid to influence the decisions he made as Treasurer”.

Now that same matter is troubling the Treasurer as he readies for his second economic statement.

Originally published as PM supports “hard working” Treasurer’s legal action against Fairfax on Budget eve