Planning minister’s brother accuses Victorian Liberals of defamation

A Victorian shadow minister and the Liberal Party’s state director have been threatened with defamation action by a Labor-linked lobbyist after the opposition asked whether an improper factional deal was behind his sister’s promotion to the planning ministry.

Despite the legal threat, Louise Staley, opposition spokeswoman for government scrutiny, doubled down in state parliament on Thursday with a legally protected tirade against lobbyist John-Paul Blandthorn, describing him as a “factional hack” and scorning the defamation claim.

Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn’s lobbyist brother, John-Paul Blandthorn, has been accused by a Liberal MP of being a “factional Labor Party hack”.

“It’s just a media stunt,” Staley said. “A pathetic, weak, lawyer’s letter based on nothing.”

The Andrews government announced in July that it would not deal with lobbying firm Hawker Britton on planning issues because Blandthorn – the brother of Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn – is one of its directors.

Hawker Britton has clients in infrastructure and development that have included Intrapac, Caydon, Tract and John Holland.

The government’s decision to no longer deal with Hawker Britton followed reports in The Age that the Blandthorns’ relationship was a cause for concern among some integrity experts and Labor insiders.

Louise Staley, opposition spokeswoman for government scrutiny, has doubled down on her comments about Blandthorn.Credit: Jason South

Staley published two media releases about the issue that Blandthorn says damaged his reputation.

“What factional deals did [Premier] Daniel Andrews agree to in appointing Planning Minister Lizzie Blandthorn given her brother, John-Paul Blandthorn, is a director of major Labor-linked lobbying firm Hawker Britton?” Staley said in one of the releases, which was published on the Liberal Party website and in the Herald Sun.

On Wednesday, Blandthorn’s lawyers at Holding Redlich threatened defamation action in a concerns notice sent to Staley and Liberal Party state director Sam McQuestin.

In his letter, Holding Redlich partner Howard Rapke said the false claim that the lobbyist was involved in a factional deal would have amounted to a breach of the Victorian lobbyist code of conduct.

He said Staley’s comments falsely suggested Blandthorn benefited from his sister’s promotion and that Andrews was “somehow repaying a factional favour” through her ministerial appointment.

“Our client takes strong issue with the publication and considers it has done serious harm to his reputation,” Rapke said in the notice.

“On behalf of our client, we request the Victorian Liberal Party make an offer to make amends by way of a publication by way of an agreed wording for apology and/or retracting [the statement].”

Staley confirmed she had received the letter but declined to comment further on the matter.

“It’s with my lawyers,” she said.

But on Thursday, Staley repeated the statement that Blandthorn alleges was defamatory while speaking under parliamentary privilege. She accused Blandthorn of being a “former corrupt union official” and raised unproven allegations from the 2018 election that he had threatened a candidate running against his sister in Pascoe Vale.

“If that’s not a CV of a factional hack of the Labor Party, I don’t know what is,” Staley said.

Blandthorn received an apology and payout after the allegations were aired in 2018, which is made clear in a correction to the original story published in The Age.

He challenged Staley to repeat the comments outside parliament, where she is not protected from defamation action. “Because it’s all untruths,” Blandthorn said.

Staley’s media releases listed dozens of questions she said the Labor Party should answer, while the Coalition was under pressure over a scandal involving Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s former chief of staff.

“Andrews’ Labor government minister Danny Pearson has today told the media that ‘Victorians have a right to know’ when it comes to questions of integrity in politics,” one of Staley’s media releases said in August.

“Minister Pearson is absolutely right – Victorians have a right to know things Daniel Andrews and his government have actually done.”

Simon Banks, managing director of Hawker Britton, said Staley needed to apologise for the comments.

“It’s simply not true,” Banks said. “The key things we are seeking are a retraction and a correction on the public record.”

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will stand in as minister on any matter involving Hawker Britton.

McQuestin, the state Liberal director, was contacted for comment.

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