Former NSW deputy premier and member for Oxley Andrew Stoner says broadcaster Alan Jones defamed him by saying he "sold out" his farming constituency and gave favourable treatment to mining and resources companies in return for political donations to the Nationals.
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But on Tuesday, lawyers for the top-rating 2GB breakfast host told the Supreme Court the term "sold out" is too ambiguous to be put to a jury.
Mr Stoner is suing Jones and Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham for defamation over a series of five broadcasts in June and August last year regarding the contentious issues of coal seam gas and coal mining in regional NSW.
Mr Stoner's barrister, Terence Tobin, QC, told Justice Lucy McCallum the broadcasts were "an extraordinarily virulent attack" on the former Nationals leader, who did not recontest his seat of Oxley at the March election.
Matthew Richardson, who is acting for Jones and Mr Buckingham, opposed several of the defamatory imputations pleaded by Mr Stoner.
Mr Richardson said he would not argue that calling someone a "gun for hire" was not defamatory but suggested it had not been pleaded correctly.
In the first four broadcasts, Jones attacked Mr Stoner as "dumb as a plank of wood" and accused him of describing a group of anti-coal seam gas protesters at Bentley on the NSW north coast as "professional bludgers".
Jones also labelled Mr Stoner a "gutless wonder" and an "intellectual incompetent".
On August 29, Jones interviewed Mr Buckingham in relation to the Shenhua coal mine in the Liverpool Plains.
Mr Buckingham said "the first thing Andrew Stoner did ... when he came into government was to facilitate one of the biggest coal mines in the heart of the Liverpool Plains, Shenhua".
He accused Mr Stoner of "undermining his constituency, the farmers".
They also discussed allegations before the Independent Commission Against Corruption about the former mining mogul Nathan Tinkler.
At the time of the August 29 broadcast, ICAC was hearing allegations that then NSW Labor government ministers Eric Roozendaal and Joe Tripodi had taken steps to help Mr Tinkler secure approval for a coal loader in the Newcastle suburb of Mayfield.
"Lots of money flowed from Nathan Tinkler and his interests to the National Party and after they got into government Andrew Stoner and [another Nationals MP] did the bidding of Nathan Tinkler," Mr Buckingham said.
"They kept in train the process that Joe Tripodi and Eric Roozendaal set in place."
In his statement of claim Mr Stoner says the broadcasts conveyed him as not fit to be NSW Nationals leader or Deputy Premier and that he favoured miners over the welfare of the community.
It says Mr Buckingham had imputed that Mr Stoner "acted corruptly in promoting the coal interests of Nathan Tinkler as a pay-off for donations to the [National] party". Mr Stoner says the imputations are false.
On Tuesday, Mr Tobin said the mere mention of the ICAC created a "whiff of corruption" around his client.
Justice McCallum will hand down her judgment on which imputations can go to the jury on Friday.
