Accused fraudster Paul Hogan slams tourism ads, Baz Luhrmann

 

Accused fraudster Paul Hogan slams tourism ads, Baz Luhrmann by Vicky Roach and Janet Fife-Yeomans, October 28, 2008 (Credit: The Daily Telegraph)

 

PAUL Hogan has slammed the new $40 million Tourism Australia campaign featuring ads by Baz Luhrmann as a dud, but the accused tax evader has got his own worries.

Hogan criticised the tourism campaign at a press conference today in Sydney, which features two film advertisements by director Baz Luhrman.

"I'm not crazy about it," he said while promoting the new Australian film Charlie & Boots, in which he stars opposite Kenny's Shane Jacobson.

"It doesn't set me on fire."

Hoges believes the ads make the common mistake of focussing on our beaches and the Outback.

"Everyone's got that.

"If I go to your house to visit and I want to come back, it's because I enjoyed your company not the furniture. They are addressing the furniture."

Hoges own "shrimp on the barbie" campaign, which ran from 1984 to 1990, was hugely successful.

The Crocodile Dundee star believes similarly themed ads - promoting Australians as friendly and laidback - would be just as well received today.

"I suspect it actually might work again," he said.

While Hoges may have been laughing and joking at his press conference, things got nasty in his fight over his alleged tax fraud across town at the Federal Court.

The court was told that the Australian Crime Commission is continuing its investigation into the Crocodile Dundee stars tax affairs.

Counsel for the commission, Tim Game SC, angrily attacked Hogan's lawyers in court for inferring that the commission had done anything wrong in its investigation.

He accused Hogan of trying to shut down the inquiry by seeking to remove up to seven investigators.

Hogan's barrister, Francois Kunc SC, has asked the court to quarantine the investigators from the case because they may have seen confidential documents.

In 2006 the ACC seized thousands of Hogan's personal financial documents including from his accountants Ernst and Young.

Hogan has won a court battle that most of the documents were privileged and they have been returned.

However his lawyers want anyone who viewed the documents to be removed from the investigation.

In the course of today's arguments the ACC has revealed its investigation into Hogan and one of his accountants, Tony Stewart, is continuing.

Neither man has been charged, despite a five-year investigation. Hogan maintains he has paid his fair share of tax.

The case continues.

 

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Shrimp on the barbie

A series of television advertisements by the Australian Tourism Commission starring Paul Hogan from 1984 through to 1990