Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, August tenth, twenty twenty six. White activists who
Speaker 1: demand decolonization are guilty of political correctness gone wild. That's
Speaker 1: according to Indigenous academic Mark Rose, a Gundichmurra Man, who's
Speaker 1: just been made First Nation's Commissioner at the Tertiary Sector's
Speaker 1: Oversight Body ATECH, Senior Treasury officials privately discussed warnings that
Speaker 1: Anthony Albanese's five percent home deposit scheme could lead to
Speaker 1: first home buyers being exposed to risk of negative equity
Speaker 1: if house prices fell below the value of their mortgages.
Speaker 1: Those exclusives are live now at the Australian dot com
Speaker 1: dot au. Former broadcaster Ray Hadley will this week enter
Speaker 1: the witness box to give evidence in the criminal trial
Speaker 1: of his former close colleague and rival Alan Jones. Jones
Speaker 1: has pleaded not guilty to twenty two charges involving sexual
Speaker 1: contact with young men. His barrister has already told the
Speaker 1: trial Hadley wanted to destroy Jones and he'll be giving
Speaker 1: evidence for the Crown. That's an exclusive in Today's Media
Speaker 1: Diary by Steve Jackson Today. Reporter Leam Mendez joins us
Speaker 1: fresh from his courtroom seat just behind Jones, with insights
Speaker 1: on what's shaping up as an epic and bitterly forught trial.
Speaker 2: Are you making your evidence up as you go along?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: This is an exchange in the New South Wales Local
Speaker 1: Court between the defense lawyer Gabrielle Bisheer, one of the
Speaker 1: country's most eminent silks, representing former broadcaster Allan Jones, and
Speaker 1: a man we can name only as complainant. Jay Jay
Speaker 1: is one of six men who claim Jones engaged in
Speaker 1: unwanted kissing and touching of them. We've used voice actors
Speaker 1: throughout this episode to bring you the words spoken in court.
Speaker 1: Jones has pleaded not guilty to twenty counts of indecent
Speaker 1: assault and two counts of sexual touching. Liam Mendez is
Speaker 1: a journalist with The Australian and he's been covering the
Speaker 1: long awaited trial of Alan Jones. Lim from the outside,
Speaker 1: this feels like a very big deal, this trial, even
Speaker 1: though it's in the local court. What's that scene been like?
Speaker 4: This is a huge trial and you know this is
Speaker 4: Alan Jones, one of the biggest names in Australian broadcasting.
Speaker 3: Now right across Australia.
Speaker 5: Alan Jones, she's a clown.
Speaker 2: Jacinderada in a complete clown. I just wonder whether Scott Morrison's.
Speaker 4: You know, I certainly grew up listening to him. A
Speaker 4: lot of Australians, did you know he had a huge
Speaker 4: amount of power in Australian media. So it's quite extraordinary
Speaker 4: sort of watching him walk into Downing Center Court every
Speaker 4: day and sitting down. He sits down in the same
Speaker 4: seat and he's gagged. He's not saying anything. At this stage,
Speaker 4: we don't know whether he's going to be called as
Speaker 4: a witness. He may, he may not. If he does,
Speaker 4: it'll be quite extraordinary because then he'll be put up
Speaker 4: to cross examination by the Crown. And seeing someone like
Speaker 4: Alan Jones appearing and being cross examined will be something
Speaker 4: that you know, I think a lot of people will
Speaker 4: be fascinated with you reading about.
Speaker 1: He's facing a couple of dozen charges involving sexual touching
Speaker 1: of young men who came into his orbit over the years,
Speaker 1: and we really do have to cast our minds back
Speaker 1: to him as this very powerful broadcaster. He kind of
Speaker 1: lived like the King of Sydney, didn't he in his
Speaker 1: amazing apartment down near Circular Key. He had a farm
Speaker 1: and he offered patronage to these young men. According to
Speaker 1: what the Crown is putting before the court, what forms
Speaker 1: did that patronage take.
Speaker 4: We're getting an extraordinarily detailed look inside the life of
Speaker 4: Alan Jones. When he was in his absolute heyday, he
Speaker 4: was being chauffeur driven around by very young men. He
Speaker 4: was giving out mobile phones. You know, Alan Jones is
Speaker 4: someone who has a chef, a butler. He had everyone
Speaker 4: sort of running around doing things for him.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: He was someone that if you were the Prime Minister
Speaker 4: and Alan Jones called you, you would be picking up
Speaker 4: that phone call. He was someone that was incredibly feared.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Alan Jones's life was amazingly luxurious. He was so wealthy,
Speaker 1: even though he reported to speak up for what he
Speaker 1: called struggle street listeners who were down on theirk or
Speaker 1: who just ordinary Australians trying to get by. There was
Speaker 1: a very evocative foreshadowing of some evidence that's going to
Speaker 1: be heard from one of the complainants about him going
Speaker 1: to Ellen Jones's apartment admiring the flowers and then receiving
Speaker 1: a floral display once a week for a year from
Speaker 1: Alan Jones. The implication is that this was some sort
Speaker 1: of active courtship or of love bombing, and that was
Speaker 1: an interesting insight into these allegations, isn't it. I mean,
Speaker 1: I suspect Alan Jones if he is going to give evidence,
Speaker 1: we'll say that these were acts of generosity and kindness.
Speaker 1: You mentioned giving someone a mobile phone. Do you get
Speaker 1: that sense that that's how this is.
Speaker 4: Going to go? Absolutely, and the Crown is certainly forming
Speaker 4: its case on allegations that Jones was grooming, at least
Speaker 4: especially this first witness who has been before the court.
Speaker 4: We're talking about a huge amount of money that was
Speaker 4: deposited into his bank account. It's really interesting to see
Speaker 4: how the Crown is sort of trying to paint this
Speaker 4: picture of this life that Alan Jones had.
Speaker 1: Jay told the court he met Jones when he was
Speaker 1: a promising young athlete. He said he received regular payments
Speaker 1: from Jones over several years, purportedly to support his athletic career.
Speaker 1: He described incidents of unwanted kissing and touching by Jones,
Speaker 1: which he said started when he was seventeen. He described
Speaker 1: one incident, which he said happened at Jones's country property
Speaker 1: at Fitzroy Falls, south of Sydney.
Speaker 3: The defendant told me to go and have a shower
Speaker 3: and come back in a robe, and nothing else.
Speaker 5: Of another incident, Jay said it was.
Speaker 3: Another trapped moment. I was completely frozen.
Speaker 1: Gabrielle Basher Cross examined Jay about one of the incidents
Speaker 1: where he said Jones had ordered him to take off
Speaker 1: his clothes.
Speaker 2: You must have understood that this was some kind of
Speaker 2: suggestion of getting ready for sexual activity. Yes, you could
Speaker 2: have put your pants back on.
Speaker 3: I could have.
Speaker 1: Basher put it to Jay, who came forward after media
Speaker 1: reports about Jones's alleged offending that he had made up
Speaker 1: his story.
Speaker 2: He never said he'd pull the money if you didn't
Speaker 2: do what he wanted.
Speaker 3: Did he No? But I didn't like when he was
Speaker 3: disappointed in me. It was not a good time, not
Speaker 3: a good feeling.
Speaker 1: Jay described an incident where he and Jones kissed and
Speaker 1: their naked bodies touched.
Speaker 3: I was very scared in that room. That was as
Speaker 3: scared as I've ever been.
Speaker 1: Jay described another incident where he and Jones were both
Speaker 1: wearing robes and their penises touched.
Speaker 2: This account you've given of penis wiggling is an attempt
Speaker 2: to humiliate mister Jones, isn't it.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 5: Jay also told the court Jones's penis quote wasn't very big.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know because you've never seen mister Jones's penis.
Speaker 3: Yes, I have.
Speaker 1: Some of Basher's cross examination was briefly suppressed, but when
Speaker 1: the non publication order was lifted, journalists could reveal her
Speaker 1: lines of attack, including putting to Jay that he had
Speaker 1: a financial motivation.
Speaker 5: For accusing Jones.
Speaker 1: So you watched that cross examination unfold, but couldn't report
Speaker 1: on it at the time. I guess he still had
Speaker 1: to be frantically making notes right in case it became unsuppressed.
Speaker 4: That's right. And it's been really fascinating watching Jay as
Speaker 4: we're allowed to refer to him as you know, giving
Speaker 4: this evidence. He's thinking very carefully about what he's saying.
Speaker 4: And part of what was suppressed was that he was
Speaker 4: a former police officer, and so he has actually had
Speaker 4: some form of training of giving evidence in court, and
Speaker 4: that is part of what was suppressed. We're allowed to
Speaker 4: report on that now.
Speaker 1: Gabrielle Bushi also put it to him that he had
Speaker 1: a financial motive for making these allegations against Jones.
Speaker 5: What did he say to that?
Speaker 4: He said, there was absolutely no financial motive. He even
Speaker 4: said that, you know, he's willing to sign a document
Speaker 4: to so that he'd never launch civil proceedings against mister Jones,
Speaker 4: no matter what the outcome of this would be. He's saying,
Speaker 4: he's made it very clear that he's got a young
Speaker 4: daughter and he wants to show her that what happened
Speaker 4: to him, what he says happened to him, wasn't a
Speaker 4: right thing. Witness Day is going to be one of many,
Speaker 4: many witnesses. There's also other witnesses that are set to
Speaker 4: come that are related to him. This is going to
Speaker 4: be a three to four.
Speaker 5: Month long trial.
Speaker 4: We've got other high profile people, including as Steve Jackson
Speaker 4: is going to reveal in mediadary that Ray Hadley is
Speaker 4: going to be called as a witness, So there's been
Speaker 4: some mention of that. There is some other names that
Speaker 4: we can't say who they are. We know who they are,
Speaker 4: but we're talking about some incredibly high profile people who
Speaker 4: are going to be appearing in this case.
Speaker 1: In her opening address, Bash has said Hadley a long
Speaker 1: time on air colleague and rival of Jones, had deliberately
Speaker 1: helped facilitate media reporting of allegations against her client.
Speaker 5: That was just part of.
Speaker 1: What Bash has said was quote rivalry, treachery, double dealing, money, hatred, desperation,
Speaker 1: opportunism and more.
Speaker 5: At the heart of the case.
Speaker 1: Coming up, how the eighty five year old Jones is
Speaker 1: spending his days in court. What's been your sense of
Speaker 1: Alan Jones's demeanor in the witness box and as he
Speaker 1: walks in and out of court each day.
Speaker 4: I've been sitting about two and a half meters behind him,
Speaker 4: to his right, so I can sort of watch him
Speaker 4: very closely. You know, he's cracking the odd laugh when
Speaker 4: the rest of the court is laughing. He appears very relaxed.
Speaker 4: He's always there with his legs crossed, his vigorously taking notes.
Speaker 4: A note taking has increased since the cross examination has commenced.
Speaker 1: In fact, you revealed in The Australian in Our Life
Speaker 1: blog that he was noting things down in a one
Speaker 1: nation notepad.
Speaker 4: Well, that's right. On Wednesday he had this one nation
Speaker 4: notepad and you know it's a three dollar notepad that's
Speaker 4: sold out. Actually on the One Nation website after it
Speaker 4: is One Nation merch he's got Pauline hands in the
Speaker 4: bottom right hand corner. And then, mysteriously, I'm not sure
Speaker 4: if it's because we wrote about it. Not long after
Speaker 4: we wrote about it, he returned from lunch with just
Speaker 4: a generic reporter's notepad, so that One Nation notepad is
Speaker 4: I don't know where it's gone. And now it's just
Speaker 4: this scruffy, old like reporters notepad that he's using, and
Speaker 4: he's making a lot of notes. He's showing things to
Speaker 4: Brian Wrench, who is his high profile instructing solicitor next
Speaker 4: to him, and Brian sort of has a look, and
Speaker 4: then Brian's sometimes passing little notes between some solicitors on
Speaker 4: the team. But most of the time, you know, Alan
Speaker 4: is clearly listening intently. He's thinking a lot, He's making
Speaker 4: lots of notes. He's not always looking at the screen.
Speaker 4: Sometimes he's looking straight ahead. But you know, he gets up,
Speaker 4: he's off in the first one, up and out of
Speaker 4: the room after lunch has been called. On the first day,
Speaker 4: he had a supporter in court before the court was closed,
Speaker 4: and you know he's sort of cracking jokes with this
Speaker 4: supporter the supporter sat behind him and he got it
Speaker 4: up and I said something along the lines of oh,
Speaker 4: I hope you don't cough on me or something like that,
Speaker 4: and whacked him with his cane. So that's sort of
Speaker 4: that Alan Jones spanter that he's known for having.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be an epic trial. I hope
Speaker 1: you've got lots of notebooks up your sleeve. Lim, Thank
Speaker 1: you very much, thank you. La Mendez is a reporter
Speaker 1: with The Australian. We're covering this story live at the
Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot are you