BROADCASTER Alan Jones has labelled Premier Campbell Newman a "political novice" for suing him during an election campaign.
Mr Newman and his deputy Jeff Seeney are suing Mr Jones over "the sensational language, tone and prominence of the matters complained of", "the Plaintiff's knowledge of the falsity of the matters complained of and of the imputations conveyed to them".
In documents lodged with the Supreme Court on Thursday, Mr Newman and Mr Seeney's legal counsel allege Mr Jones' made his claims "knowing them to be false or with reckless indifference to their truth or falsity and lacking an honest belief" and failed "to inform the Plaintiffs of his intention to publish, and/or allow them any opportunity to challenge the allegations".
Mr Jones, who is broadcasting a "special" Queensland election edition of his show on Fairfax Radio 4BC, has been at war with the Queensland Government over its approval of the Acland Coal Mine stage three expansion. He has accused Mr Newman of "lying" to him over the Darling Downs project.
He said Mr Newman visited him at his home ahead of the 2012 election and told him he would oppose the New Hope expansion. The mine was approved late last year.
Mr Jones has since highlighted the "more than $1 million" New Hope majority owner Washington H Soul Pattinson had donated to the LNP across its state and federal executives.
"Campbell Newman lied to me. I have no reason to believe anything he says," Mr Jones said on 4BC on Monday.
On Friday, Mr Jones said he had received a '35-pages of correspondence' from Mr Newman and his "side-kick", Mr Seeney, alleging defamation. Most of that correspondence is a transcript of Mr Jones's radio show from earlier this week.
"Goodness knows how many times I have communicated with him on a range of issues and those communications have been unanswered, so imagine my surprise yesterday when I did receive correspondence running 35 pages from him and his side-kick, both of them Jeff Seeney," he said during his radio broadcast.
"The correspondence though doesn't address any of the concerns that I have been raising, it takes the form and statement of claim for defamation filed in the supreme court of Queensland yesterday, relating to comments about Mr Newman in relation to the Acland stage three coal mine.
"Nice to hear from you Mr Newman, but you might have been Premier for Queensland for three [years] but you remain a bit of a political novice if you think that is the way to win an election or silence people, you need to actually think again, but thanks for writing."
In the documents lodged in the court, Mr Newman's and Mr Seeney's legal counsel make particular mention of Mr Jones' first radio broadcast on Monday, January 19 and Mr Jones' allegations that Mr Newman "lied" to him when he said he would not approve the Acland Stage Three coal mine.
Mr Newman has also taken umbrage at Mr Jones' imputation he "dishonestly approved the Acland Stage Three coal mine because New Hope Coal had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Newman Government" and that he "prostituted" himself "because he approved the Acland Stage Three coal mine because New Hope Coal had donated more than $700,000 to his political party"..
According to the documents, Mr Seeney is suing because of the same imputations.
Claims Mr Jones made on his January 20 show, where he said Mr Newman and Mr Seeney "lied to the public in a press release sent from his office on 26 February 2012 which said his party the LNP would not approve the Acland Stage Three coal mine proposal which would see the open cut coal mine expand to the very edge of Oakey" and that the proposal was approved because "a bribe of $700,000 was paid to [their] political party, the LNP".
They are also suing over Mr Jones's claims Mr Newman "lied to the public when he said he had to approve the Acland Stage Three coal mine because it would create 1000 jobs".
There was no mention of costs in the legal documents.
A government spokesman said the party would be funding the legal action, not taxpayers.
"Mr Jones has been asked to account for his defamation before the Supreme Court," the government spokesman said.
"As the matter is now before the courts, we will not be commenting further."
Queensland Opposition leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said Mr Newman needed to "guarantee" taxpayer funds would not be used, adding the Newman Government was reverting back to before July last year when it instigated "Operation Boring" to try and win back the populace after a series of fights and unpopular decisions.
"Operation Boring is over. Here we go, back to the fights, back to the fights, the dysfunction that we have seen, the chaos over the last three years," she said.
"He's [Mr Newman] just back to being himself."
Mr Jones told his listeners Mr Newman had more questions to answer.
"Campbell Newman has all week denied any impropriety in relation to the approval of Acland stage three mine, and though donations were made, by the owner of the mine,[to] the LNP party, whether it went to Canberra or Brisbane, it doesn't matter, over a $1 million, there is no link he said," he said.
"Remember the famous Profumo affair in England and Mandy Rice-Davies saying "he would say that, wouldn't he" I repeat what I said yesterday.
"Mr Newman should tell the electorate how much money the LNP party has received up until July 2014 from Soul Pattinson the owner of New Hope. How much have they received from Brickworks, also owned by Soul Pattinson?"
Radio station 4BC has declined to comment.
Disclosure: 4BC is owned by Fairfax Media. which also owns The Brisbane Times and Queensland Country Life.
