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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.
Profile
Shrimp
on the barbie
A
series of television advertisements by the Australian
Tourism Commission starring Paul Hogan from 1984 through
to 1990
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