Minister to Jones: stay brave and true: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Samantha Maiden, John Stapleton, Ian Gerard. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 30 Apr 2004: 4.
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Veterans Affairs Minister Danna Vale wrote telling [Alan Jones] to "stay brave and true" yesterday, but faxed it by mistake to rival station 2UE, which Jones left in February 2002 to join 2GB. "Thinking of you Alan, and write to assure you of our warm support; and to add our names to the long list of all your friends," the correspondence on official letterhead stated.
[John Laws] said people should believe him about Jones's statements at the 2000 dinner party because other guests could back him up. "The statement, I'm telling you, was made," Laws said on his 2UE morning show. "So, it now seems that either Alan Jones or thePrime Minister is a liar."
PRIME Minister John Howard yesterday brushed off a suggestion he may have lied about whether powerful radio presenter Alan Jones pressured him into reappointing the chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
But Mr Howard told a Brisbane radio station he was "seeking advice" on what ABA chairman Professor David Flint has described as a stream of letters between him and Jones.
The federal Government was drawn deeper into the scandal surrounding Jones and Professor Flint after a minister sent a letter of support to the Sydney 2GB talkback king.
Veterans Affairs Minister Danna Vale wrote telling Jones to "stay brave and true" yesterday, but faxed it by mistake to rival station 2UE, which Jones left in February 2002 to join 2GB. "Thinking of you Alan, and write to assure you of our warm support; and to add our names to the long list of all your friends," the correspondence on official letterhead stated.
Professor Flint attended a meeting of the seven-member ABA board last night but declined to respond when asked by reporters if he retained the board's full confidence.
Rival broadcaster John Laws was sticking by his story yesterday, that Jones had told a dinner party in 2000 that he had threatened Mr Howard with withdrawing his support unless Professor Flint was reappointed to the regulator.
Jones and Mr Howard have strongly denied that any such threat was made.
Laws added more fuel to the controversy by claiming he had seen a letter from Jones in June 1999 to Professor Flint referring to "their allegiance".
That letter followed one written by Professor Flint to Jones earlier that month in which the ABA's chairman praised the broadcaster.
Laws said people should believe him about Jones's statements at the 2000 dinner party because other guests could back him up. "The statement, I'm telling you, was made," Laws said on his 2UE morning show. "So, it now seems that either Alan Jones or the Prime Minister is a liar."
Mr Howard told Brisbane radio 4BC that because he was not at the dinner party he did not know what was said.
Asked whether he or Jones were lying, Mr Howard told journalists: "I wasn't a guest at the dinner party and, frankly, what went on atthe dinner party where I wasn't a guest I don't know and I don't comment (on)."
Thinking of you Alan, and write to assure you of our warm support; and to add our names to the long list of all your friends.
Stay brave and true.
Yours sincerely
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