Hardie Director 'not Frank', Court Told

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday December 18, 2008

Elisabeth Sexton

THE former James Hardie chairman Meredith Hellicar was accused of giving "not truthful" evidence to the NSW Supreme Court yesterday after she disavowed two documents from her email files.

At issue was whether the board approved a media release in February 2001 saying a new asbestos compensation trust would be "fully funded".

Ms Hellicar agreed she sent an email to other directors in September 2004, attaching a declaration by her that she had participated in the decision to approve the media release.

She said yesterday: "I didn't believe I approved it."

The declaration was intended to register a potential conflict of interest during the board's discussion of how to respond to a report by David Jackson, QC, of his inquiry into the gross underfunding of the trust.

"You realise that this declaration is so contrary to the position that you would like to maintain in these proceedings that you are prepared to say anything to try to excuse and explain away what you realise and understand is completely inexplicable?" asked Tony Bannon, SC, for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. "No, I'm prepared to tell you the truth as best I can recall it to assist the court," Ms Hellicar replied.

The commission is suing 10 former directors and executives over allegedly "misleading and deficient" public statements about asbestos compensation in 2001. Ms Hellicar said she accepted legal advice to provide the declaration, which she did not draft and could not recall ever signing.

"At that point in time, without any time at all to sit back and consider the truth or otherwise, I had a report by Commissioner Jackson that said that the board had approved it and some [board] minutes that said we had, and I could get no further in the thinking at that point, other than to be careful in case we'd had some aberration and perhaps, unbeknownst to me, I had approved it," she said.

She had no recollection of ever reading an August 2004 email from a James Hardie lawyer saying the company's submission to Mr Jackson said the board had approved the media release.

"I didn't know we had submitted that," she said.

Mr Bannon said she was "so determined not to concede" she was aware of the submission that she was "prepared to give evidence which is not frank and truthful to this court". "This evidence is absolutely frank and truthful," Ms Hellicar replied.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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