WEBVTT - The allegations against Alan Jones, explained 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.240 Already and this is this is the Daily OS. 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.840 This is the Daily ohs oh, now it makes sense. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.480 Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:18.840 the nineteenth of November. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:20.360 I'm Zara, I'm Sam. 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.279 Yesterday morning news broke that well known broadcaster Alan Jones 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.160 had been arrested at his home in Sydney over alleged 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.960 indecent assaults. Later in the day, police announced that he'd 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.960 been charged with twenty four offenses. Now, this was a 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.239 really big story because of who Alan Jones is and 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:41.560 the power he's held in both media and political spheres 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:43.519 in Australia for the past few decades. 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.920 I think the identity of Alan Jones and the power 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.000 that he holds is really at the heart of this 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.880 story and why he's been such a permanent fixture in 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:59.280 Australian media and political circles for so long. For anyone 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.200 who is a quite across it, can you give me 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:02.880 a sense of who Alan Jones is? 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:06.399 Yeah, So when I sat down to write this podcast, 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.000 I thought I knew a lot about Alan Jones's career. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.240 You know, you're told these stories when you enter the 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.600 industry about someone that had been there for years in 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.959 years and years, but it turns out that he's had 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.200 quite a unique career trajectory. So he's not someone that 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.119 entered journalism straight out of university and then stayed there 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.880 his whole career. Alan Jones, who right now is in 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.360 his early eighties, he actually started his career as an 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.360 English teacher and a rugby teacher at King's so the 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.720 King's School in Sydney. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.000 Which is a really prestigious private school. 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.240 Yeah, exactly. And then in the mid seventies he moved 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.440 into the political realm. He worked as a speech writer 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.880 and then ran for pre selection in the seat of Damnero, 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:52.000 which he subsequently lost, but that didn't deter him, and 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:55.520 Alan Jones later ran for two different seats for the 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.520 Liberal Party. He lost both of those as well, but 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.680 he stayed in those it's kind of political spheres and 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.600 later became a speechwriter for the then Liberal Prime Minister 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.560 Malcolm Fraser. Then there was a bit of a switch 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.720 up in his career and Alan Jones went back into 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.720 the sporting world where he became the coach of the 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.679 Wallabies in nineteen eighty three. But then he moved into 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.799 broadcasting and it's there that Alan Jones's profile really began 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.200 to grow, so he became a radio host on Sydney 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.400 talkback radio stations to YUI and later two GB, and 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.040 for decades he hosted those shows. He also regularly wrote 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.000 opinion columns for news corps many newspapers and had a 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.239 dedicated show on Sky News up until twenty twenty one. 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:44.920 And those shows that he was involved with, whether it 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.160 be on radio, television or his working print, it did 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:52.240 incredibly well. He was a very popular host. And yeah, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.120 some of those radio numbers were huge. 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:56.639 Yeah, I mean he held that number one spot for 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:01.040 so so long, and so many politicians had their run, 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.440 you know, facing off against Alan Jones on TWOGB. It 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:06.440 was almost this rite of passage, I guess. 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:08.760 But then I think the reason why a lot of 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:11.400 our listeners might be familiar with the name Alan Jones 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.919 is not necessarily because of his media career. But when 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:15.120 he's in the media. 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.560 Himself, he certainly made and continues to make a lot 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.360 of headlines himself. There are a number of controversies that 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.239 Alan Jones himself was embroiled in, and he was a 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.160 shock jock for decades, so you know, it was almost 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.760 his trade to say shocking things. But I do want 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:34.560 to just zero in, I guess on two of the 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.560 more better known attacks that really defined the latter part 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.280 of Alan Jones's media career. So the first was an 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:45.880 attack he made against Australia's first and only female Prime Minister, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.520 Julia Gillard. So back in twenty twelve, he claimed Gillard 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.320 should be put in a chaff bag and dumped at sea. 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.720 He also suggested that her father, who at that time 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.840 had recently passed, that he had died of shame. He 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.360 later publicly apologized for those comments. But now, when people 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.920 retrospectively look back on the Gillard prime ministership, those comments 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.000 do feature very prominently and a lot of the kind 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:13.440 of discourse around gender that emerged during that. 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.760 Time, including her own analysis of how media treated her 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:17.560 during that period. 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.480 Yeah exactly, But that wasn't the only female leader of 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.480 a country that Alan Jones targeted. More recently, he suggested 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.640 that former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison should have shoved 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:31.920 a sock down the throat of former New Zealand Prime 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:36.560 Minister Jasindra Dern. So that was in twenty nineteen. At 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.080 the time, he also said that he hoped Scott Morrison 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:42.200 quote gets tough here with a few backhanders, and that 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.120 he goes for the throat. The Australian Media Regulator AKMA 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.800 eventually found that Alan Jones had breached broadcasting rules when 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.000 he said those things, and there was this real mass 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:57.359 exodus of advertising partners from two GB in response to 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:00.640 the comments he had made about Justindra Durn. Perhaps you 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.719 know there. It's a really interesting analysis of how much 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:06.480 had changed, I guess since twenty twelve when those comments 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.280 were made about Julia Gillard to twenty nineteen when they 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:13.040 were made about Jacindra Adern. Alan Jones eventually wrote an 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.039 apology letter to Jasindra Adern and said on air that 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:17.039 he had made a mistake. 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.800 I think many would agree that the other big change 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:21.839 from twenty twelve to twenty nineteen was the fact that 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.479 advertisers started to pull their support from Alan Jones's program. 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.680 That happened in twenty nineteen. A year later, in twenty twenty, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.840 Alan Jones stepped down from hosting his show onto GB. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.159 Yeah, he said at the time that that was due 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.719 to doctors' orders. But the Citney Morning Herald, who you know, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:39.560 we'll get into it a little bit has written quite 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.279 a lot about Alan Jones. In an article, they said 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.000 that there was a commercial imperative for Alan Jones to 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.120 get off air because advertisers had continued to boycott his 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:51.960 show after the Arderne comments, and that it was becoming 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.680 commercially basically unviable for him to remain on air with 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:57.440 so many advertisers pulling away. 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:00.000 We'll be back with the d dive after this quick message. 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.039 So just to go back and recap, we have somebody 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.080 involved in the school system who then enters politics, and 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:13.480 then enters rugby, and then enters the media, makes controversial 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.400 comments part of his personality, and then steps down in 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:18.760 twenty twenty. What's happened since then? 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:23.000 After retiring from radio, as he put it, Alan Jones 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.000 ended up joining a streaming news channel. It's called adh 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.960 TV and it essentially just hosts a range of conservative 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.440 political commentators, of which he was one of. His last 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.599 show on that channel, though, was in November of last year, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.000 and that's an important date because a month later, in 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.440 December of last year, the City Morning Herald published its 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.360 first investigation into Alan Jones. Before we go on, though, 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:50.360 I do want to just say how interesting this is, 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.800 just as an aside about the Australian media market. Two GB, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.120 which is of course the station Alan Jones hosted a 0:06:57.160 --> 0:06:59.960 show on for so long, and the Cydny Morning Herald, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.600 who ran this investigation into Alan Jones, are owned by 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.080 the same companies. So nine owns both two GB and 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.880 the Sydney Morning Herald, alongside of course a whole host 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.560 of different publications. But I thought that that's just an 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:17.200 interesting quirk to keep in mind. So in that investigation 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.360 that was first published in December twenty twenty three by 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:24.679 The Sydney Morning Herald, journalist Kate McClymont alleged that Alan 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.120 Jones quote used his position of power to prey on 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.520 a number of young men indecently assaulting them, groping or 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:35.600 inappropriately touching them without consent. So that's a direct quote 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.080 from the article that went live almost a year ago. 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.160 The article went on to detail a whole host of 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:44.520 allegations made by a number of different men across a 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.760 really kind of long period of time. When McClymont actually 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.760 published that article, it did include a statement from Alan 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.040 Jones's legal team who said at the time, our client 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.360 denies ever having indecently assaulted the persons referred to in 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.360 your letter, and your suggestion that he has is scandalous, 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:04.080 grossly offensive and seriously defamatory of him. 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.000 So the article comes out and Alan Jones and his 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:11.320 legal team strongly deny claims in maintain his innocence. At 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.360 that point, there's no kind of follow on from law 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.560 enforcement or anything. But that's why we're talking about this today. 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.080 Right, Yeah, exactly. So yesterday morning we found out that 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:23.800 Alan Jones had been arrested at his home in Sydney 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:29.160 over allegations that he had indecently assaulted young men. Now, 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.040 a statement from police said that the state's Child Abuse 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.640 Squad had established a strike force earlier this year in 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.640 March to investigate a number of alleged indecent assaults and 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:43.880 sexual touching incidents between two thousand and one and twenty nineteen. 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.199 That's a direct quote from the New South Wales Police's 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.560 media release. The statement said that following extensive inquiries, an 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.840 eighty three year old man had been arrested, who we 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.360 now of course know is Alan Jones. New South Wales 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:00.360 Police Commissioner Karen Webb said in a press comes that 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.960 the arrest had followed what she called a very complex investigation. 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:05.920 Here's a bit more of what she said. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:08.640 I can't speculate in this particular case, but what is 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.560 often the case is when it is known the full 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.880 circumstances and those parties involved, other people may come forward. 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.120 And we are anticipating that other people may come forward. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.480 And Zara, do we know what Jones was actually charged with? 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:24.200 Yes? 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.640 So later yesterday New South Wales Police did get up 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.200 and do another full press conference in the afternoon and 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.959 they revealed that Alan Jones had been charged with twenty 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:39.160 four offenses against eight victims between twenty and one and 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:43.400 twenty nineteen. So these are crimes that allegedly occurred over 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.760 two decades. Police also revealed that the youngest of the 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:51.240 victims was seventeen when the alleged crime took place. The 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.520 charges include eleven counts of aggravated indecent assault where the 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.560 alleged victim was under the authority of the offender, nine 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.800 charges related to assault with active indecency, two charges of 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:07.000 common assault, and two charges of sexual touching. 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:09.240 I want to go back to one phrase you just mentioned, 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:11.920 under the authority. What does that mean exactly? 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.720 Yeah, so police explain this, and essentially what they said 0:10:14.800 --> 0:10:17.920 was that by authority they were referring to the employment 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.200 of contracts, so in a professional workplace setting, this wasn't 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.640 something they had alleged had happened in all cases, but 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.680 in some Police said that Jones knew some of the 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.360 alleged victims personally, some of them professionally, and police said 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.439 there were also some people who met Jones for the 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.920 first time when the alleged assault occurred, but that reference 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.319 to under the authority just means under contract. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.720 Okay, So what happens now, Well. 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.160 Jones has been given conditional bail and he's due next 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.560 to appear before court on December eighteenth this year, so 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.400 in a couple of weeks. The conditions around the bail 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:53.960 include requirements that he's not allowed to contact or harass 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.679 the alleged victims, and there are also some travel restrictions 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:02.240 on him. Interestinglyth Wales Police also said that that strikeforce 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:05.520 I mentioned earlier is still ongoing and that they're still 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.520 talking to people and as we heard before, they are 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:13.080 expecting more people to now potentially come forward. Police also 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.640 said that they had seized a number of electronic devices 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.200 at Alan Jones's apartment yesterday, So who knows where this 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:19.600 could go. 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.679 And have we heard from Jones or his lawyers since 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:23.400 he was arrested. 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:28.640 Yes So yesterday afternoon we did hear from Alan Jones's lawyers, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.839 and they've essentially said that he is denying all of 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:36.240 the allegations and that he will assert his innocence. I 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.080 read a direct quote here from a lawyer who said, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:42.839 allegations have been made, nothing has been tested, nothing has 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:47.240 been proven. Alan Jones will assert his innocence appropriately in 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.199 the courtroom, so as he did back when those allegations 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.720 were first published by the Sidney Morning Herald. Jones will 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:56.160 maintain his innocence. 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:58.960 So the next big milestone in this story is that 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:02.079 December eighteen date that you're referring to. Zara will keep 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.600 everybody in the loop when that comes around. And thank 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.240 you for joining us on the Daily OS this morning. 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.000 If this story has raised anything for you, there's always 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.440 one eight hundred respects to reach out to. They are 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.680 available on one eight hundred seven three seven seven three 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:17.840 to two. That's all we've got time for this morning, 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.040 but we'll be back this afternoon with some headlines. Have 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:24.880 a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:29.400 a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkottin woman from Gadighl country. The 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:32.559 Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:35.360 lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.520 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.679 respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:42.280 and present.