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i don't think john west will ever report objectively

macquarie tried to have him up for defamation at one stage

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Macquarie loses defamation caseStaff reporters
February 16, 2009
Macquarie Group's four-year-long defamation suit against a financial journalist has been dismissed by a Canberra court.

ACT Supreme Court Justice Malcolm Gray ruled that the investment bank pay the cost of the trial over an article published four years ago.

The article reported Macquarie took control of $77 million worth of future cash flows of the Beaconsfield gold mine without properly advising creditors of Allstate Explorations - which controlled the mine and had been put in administration - about the mine's potential.

Sources put the size of the costs at about $5 million.

The investment bank said in court the March 5, 2005, article, which appeared in News Ltd-owned The Australian, had defamed the company and two of its executives.

''The Mine Shaft'', written by Michael West, centred on Macquarie's acquisition of $77 million worth of Allstate debts for $300,000 in 2002. The Beaconsfield mine in northern Tasmania collapsed on Anzac Day 2006, killing one miner and trapping two others underground.

Mr West is now a senior commentator at this site, BusinessDay.

In dismissing the suit, Justice Gray said in his 58-page ruling: "...I have found, having regard to the onus that the plaintiffs bear, what was reported does not make out the plaintiffs' claim that they were defamed."

Macquarie, in a statement released afterwards, noted Justice Gray's view that Mr West's article was "emotive and sensational".

The investment bank gave no indication whether it planned to seek further legal action.


It also said the judgement "finds no impropriety on the part of Macquarie or its executives as alleged by The Australian."

Macquarie the company and executives Warwick Morris and Jonathan Rourke brought the suit against News Ltd in March 2005, after the article was published.

Mr West won a Walkley award in 2005 for his work on a related story. He was also short-listed for a Walkley last year for his commentary for BusinessDay on the global financial meltdown.

Chris Nash, head of Monash University's journalism school, said Australia's defamation laws place a burden on reporters.

"Generally Australia's defamations laws have been very restrictive," Professor Nash said. "They're not quite as restrictive now that we have a national scheme. But certainly they're nowhere near as free or as liberal as they are in the United States."

BusinessDay