The articles suggested he provided "privileged access" to members of the forum who paid up to $22,000 in annual membership fees. Treasurer Joe Hockey. Credit:Brianne Makin Mr Hockey claims the articles, headlined "Treasurer for sale" in two of the papers, defamed him by suggesting he was corrupt and would accept bribes to influence his decisions as Treasurer. His lawyers have told the Federal Court Fairfax was motivated to publish "scurrilous and false allegations" in an act of "petty spite" because editors were "furious" about having to publish an apology to Mr Hockey and a correction over a March 2014 story. In that story, chief political correspondent Mark Kenny wrote that Mr Hockey had returned $10,000 to forum member Australian Water Holdings after a corruption inquiry heard the company was linked to disgraced former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid. In fact, it was the forum who received and returned the money.

Dr Collins told the court it was an extraordinary "conspiracy theory" as Kenny was not involved with the subsequent five-week investigation into the forum until he was asked to write an analysis piece to accompany the articles written by state political editor Sean Nicholls. Mr Hockey is also suing over the analysis piece, which opened with the line, "Nobody is suggesting Joe Hockey is corrupt." Dr Collins said, "this piece could not have more clearly disclaimed the imputations" that Mr Hockey was corrupt. He said the articles at the centre of the case were "properly investigated" by experienced and responsible journalists on subjects of "central importance to our polity". If the imputations asserted by Mr Hockey are found to have been conveyed, Fairfax Media says it has a defence of qualified privilege, where a publisher says it has a duty to report matters in the public interest, and that they acted reasonably in doing so.

Dr Collins said the case might be the "most perfect example of a Lange case", referring to a landmark High Court decision on qualified privilege, which found there is an implied freedom of political communication in the Constitution. Mr Hockey's lawyers say he was blindsided by the articles, published on May 5, 2014, and that a list of 13 questions put by Mr Nicholls to him via his press secretary Gemma Daley didn't ask questions about "corrupt activity" or "privileged access to the Treasurer in return for money". However, Dr Collins put it to Ms Daley that as a former political journalist she would have recognised by the tenor and nature of the questions that Nicholls was investigating alleged access to the Treasurer by forum members who had an interest in contentious policy areas such as financial services reform. "I didn't know what he was going to write," she said. Mr Hockey said that at the time the questions were sent to his office his priorities lay elsewhere.

"I was head deep in figures for the budget... we get hundreds of questions from journalists every day and I had priorities as Treasurer of Australia". Earlier on Tuesday, he told the court it was "clearly misleading" for the forum to invite prospective members to "donate to assist Joe Hockey". "I have accepted no money at all," Mr Hockey said. He said Fairfax Media was running a "relentless campaign" against him and had continued repeating the defamatory allegations. Mr Hockey said a Herald story about Labor offering exclusive access to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for a price repeated the claims. While he was only mentioned in one paragraph, he said: "That's all it takes. Words are bullets".

Fairfax Media editors and reporters will begin giving evidence on Wednesday.