Alan Jones takes the stand in Wagner brothers libel case

Alan Jones tells court he persisted in his criticisms of the Wagner family in order to get an explanation of what happened in Grantham in 2011.

Alan Jones arrives at the Supreme Court in Brisbane today. Picture: AAP.

Broadcaster Alan Jones has told a court he was “savage” in his criticisms of the four Wagner brothers from Toowoomba who are suing him for defamation.

But he has testified that he was doing so in order to get an explanation of what happened in Grantham in 2011, where 12 people died in floodwaters.

Under cross-examination by Tom Blackburn SC, for the Wagners, Jones agreed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane that some his criticisms of the family were “savage”, but said he was not “vicious”.

He agreed that if the Wagners had not claimed the “bund” was a natural feature at the quarry, his “savage” criticisms may have been without basis.

“It would, but that hasn’t happened,” Jones said. “They’ve persistently maintained that the bund is a feature of the natural landscape. Persistently.”

Mr Blackburn challenged Jones to point to an occasion where such a claim was made. The broadcaster later nominating a statutory declaration by Denis Wagner which spoke of the “western embankment” being a natural feature.

“I don’t know what the definition of embankment is, it doesn’t state it here,” he said, referring to the statutory declaration. “But common sense would tell you that there was a bank of the pit and there was a bund on the top of the pit. I read that as saying that everything that was on the periphery of the pit was a ‘natural feature of the site’.”

In an exchange with Mr Blackburn, Jones said he had been “savage” during his broadcasts about Grantham.

Mr Blackburn asked: “Some of the criticisms that you’ve levelled against the plaintiffs have been savage, haven’t they?

Jones replied: “I think so, yes.”

Blackburn: “And in particular about Grantham?”

Jones: “Yes.”

Jones also said the Wagners had declined an invitation to appear on his radio program and that he was told they would not talk to him.

Asked if he should put a “grave allegation of misconduct” to the person involved before broadcasting it, Jones said: “In theory, that may well be correct.”

“But the Wagners have refused to speak to me,” he said.

Mr Blackburn asked: “Before broadcasting to hundreds of thousands of people the allegation made repeatedly on your program that the plaintiffs were responsible for the tragic deaths by drowning of the 12 victims of the Grantham flood … you or your producer did not contact the Wagners and say ‘I am going to make this allegation’? It didn’t happen, did it?”

Jones replied: “No.”

He said he “regarded it as a palpable waste of time” making phone calls to “people who said ‘you are black-balled, we will not speak to you.”

‘Quarry was ground zero’

Earlier, Jones told the Court he persisted in his campaign over the Grantham floods because he hoped “he would get an answer” to explain what had happened.

He said he was told by many residents that a man-made “bund” was built at the Wagners’ quarry, which collapsed after a “backflow” of water became to great.

He said that resulted in what he described as a “tsunami” and a “wall of water”, and spoke about some of the people who died in the floods.

“The bund was ground zero,” Jones told the court.

He said he had monitored the floods as they happened, before helping to raise money for the victims.

“This was the greatest single cause of death in any one environment in the history of Queensland floods,” he said

Joe Wagner arrives at the Supreme Court in Brisbane today. Picture: AAP.

He said was later contacted by one Grantham resident, Marty Warburton, who believed the floods there occurred when a man-made bund at the quarry collapsed.

He said he spoke to other residents who “all told the same story”.

“What has disturbed me, which has led to these continuous broadcasts, is that the Wagners continually denied that the bund - the wall around the quarry - was man-made, they argued it was part of the natural landscape, for years and years and years.”

He said the Wagners’ stance “inflamed and angered” Grantham residents.

“What they have said to me continuously is, it’s one thing to lose your house, it’s one thing to lose your possessions, but what is most hurtful is that we have lost the right to be believed,” Jones said.

He became emotional when telling the court of the death of 23-month-old baby Jessica Keep in the floods.

“One of the reasons I have continued to try to get answers to this is that these people have no answers.”

He said the Holmes commission of inquiry into the Queensland floods had only dedicated 1.5 pages to Grantham, and that a hydrologist’s report to the later 2015 Sofronoff inquiry left him in “disbelief”.

Jones takes the stand

Broadcaster Alan Jones has taken the stand to defend his broadcasts about the Wagner brothers of Too­woomba, who are suing him for defamation.

Jones arrived at the Supreme Court in Brisbane earlier this morning, ahead of his testimony about the 32 broadcasts over which the Wagners have been seeking up to $4.8 million in damages.

He took the stand at 10.02am.

The Wagner brothers allege they were defamed by imputations the quarry they owned was responsible for deaths in the Grantham floods, that they ­engaged in a cover-up, and had broken the law when building the Wellcamp airport.

The alleged defamation ­relates mostly to comments made by Jones on his radio shows in 2014 and 2015. Journalist Nick Cater, a columnist with The Australian, is named as a defendant over one of the broadcasts. The other defendants are Harbour Radio and 4BC.

Jones told the court he persisted in his campaign over the Grantham floods because he hoped “he would get an answer” to explain what had happened.

He said he was told by many residents that a man-made “bund” was built at the Wagners’ quarry, which collapsed after a “backflow” of water became to great.

He said that resulted in what he described as a “tsunami” and a “wall of water”, and spoke about some of the people that died in the floods.

“The bund was ground zero,” Jones told the court.

More to come