Regret the Error

A Canberra Times report published on October 22 in part referred to evidence that the Australian Electoral Commission’s chief legal officer, Paul Pirani, gave to a Senate estimates committee on the previous day. Contrary to what was incorrectly reported in the article, Mr Pirani clearly indicated to the committee that the Commonwealth Electoral Act did not apply to the issue of ACT Labor advertisements placed in The Canberra Times before the recent ACT Legislative Assembly election and that the matter did not fall in the jurisdiction of the Australian Electoral Commission.
The Canberra Times apologises to Mr Pirani for any negative inference concerning his personal and professional conduct as the commission’s chief legal officer or that he acted either unlawfully or unprofessionally in the evidence he gave to the committee.

On August 9, 2007, The Canberra Times reported on the judgment in the defamation case brought by film-maker Dennis O’Rourke against the proponent of indigenous rights Stephen Hagan and the publisher of The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Hagan has complained that the article suggested he misused public money dedicated to Aboriginal legal aid. The Canberra Times withdraws any such suggestion and apologises to Mr Hagan for the hurt and embarrassment caused.

On Saturday, March 15, 2008, under the headline, ”Ghosts of HIH may come back to haunt Liberals”, The Canberra Times made a number of incorrect assertions about Goldman Sachs Australia, and its former chairman, the Federal Member for Wentworth, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, which it would like to correct. The Canberra Times accepts that at no time did GSA or Mr Turnbull advise FAI Insurance on any privatisation proposal, and similarly accepts that at no time did GSA or Mr Turnbull ever advise HIH Insurance on its takeover of FAI. We recognise that, while GSA and Mr Turnbull advised FAI on the HIH takeover, at no time did GSA have any obligations towards HIH. Further,we concede that the assertion that GSA and Mr Turnbull ”concealed the true position of FAI” from HIH is incorrect. Any inference that GSA or Mr Turnbull acted in anything other than a professional manner was not intended, and The Canberra Times unequivocally apologises to them both.