Wednesday, 22nd February, 2006

Hatred, ridicule and contempt. The words spring readily to mind when a man with an Italian name is called a Godfather. Put the word in a headline on page one of a state's only daily newspaper and apply it to the Police Minister and you really do have a defamation.

The West Australian Police and Justice Minister John D'Orazio was the subject of just that treatment in The West Australian this morning. We will not be going in to the details here but the story looked pretty thin to me. I cannot work out what Mr D'Orazio is meant to have done to deserve the title.

It is the kind of story that would make a reasonable person think the defamation laws really are necessary! And when people can have their reputations attacked by the selective quoting of evidence purportedly given at a Corruption and Crime Commission hearing without those people having any chance to rebut the stories told against them, a reasonable person might conclude that organisations like the CCC should not even exist.

In a short statement this afternoon the Minister said:

I completely deny the claim published in The West Australian today that I brokered any business arrangement and deny any other inferences of wrongdoing.
I am deeply offended by the use of the ethnic slur 'Godfather' and believe that it would offend most Western Australians, let alone the many thousands who are of Italian descent.
I can only repeat that I have not been interviewed by, asked to provide any information to, or discussed any matters with the CCC, or the police, regarding any CCC investigation.