Reporter claims: “Wortley threatened me”
Ongoing tension between Labor’s Upper House president and a veteran TV reporter allegedly exploded in an expletive laden tirade this week.
Russell Wortley denies using offensive or threatening language during an exchange with Channel 7 reporter Hendrik Gout on Wednesday, but Gout and an editor who was with him at the time maintain the former Industrial Relations Minister warned “a f*cking freight train” was coming for him.
“It was pretty extraordinary,” said Gout, a former editor of InDaily and SA Media Awards Journalist of the Year winner who subsequently worked as a researcher for Liberal Upper House leader David Ridgway.
Gout inquired in his time with Ridgway into allegations of corruption in the Federated Gas Employees’ Industrial Union, at a time when Wortley was a union organiser.
Allegations about Wortley and others were raised in parliament by Ridgway. Gout has since followed them up with a series of reports on Today Tonight, where he now works.
The latest of these had been promoted to run on Wednesday night. On Wednesday afternoon, Gout was in the press gallery box above the Legislative Council after Question Time with an editor.
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They opened the door to rejoin their camera crew, filming from the public gallery opposite, and crossed paths with Wortley, who was listening in to Ridgway’s latest attack in the House.
As Gout tells, it, “Wortley let fly with the most amazing tirade I’ve ever heard”.
“I’ve seen about half a dozen Premiers come and go and I’ve never heard language like that in the building, let alone directed towards me,” he said.
“I felt it was threatening.”
He claims the president swore “F*ck you” (“I can’t remember how many ‘F*cks’ and how many ‘yous’) and said “along the lines of “you’ll get yours, a f*cking freight train is going to hit you”.
“If any MP had spoken to me that way — not that I’m precious, but I don’t need that in the workplace – I would tell the presiding officer,” Gout said.
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In this case, however, the presiding officer is Upper House president Russell Wortley.
InDaily has spoken to the editor, who insists she was standing beside the two men, and has verified Gout’s account.
Wortley initially denied any words were exchanged, saying he has “nothing to do with Hendrik Gout … I don’t speak to him, I don’t engage with him”.
“I don’t know what’s going on with this Hendrik Gout; he’s on this mission to do something to me,” he said.
He has consistently denied the allegations about his time in the union, saying “there’s nothing in them … it’s guilt by association”.
However, he later rang back to clarify that words might have been exchanged, though he “can’t remember” exactly what, other than that “I certainly didn’t swear”.
“I’m always very polite; very few people can say I’m an angry person … that’s not my style, mate,” he said.
“I did see him: he sat there with a big smile, a little smirk on his face … Just thinking about that, I think he was trying to provoke me into this confrontation. I couldn’t work out why he’s there smiling with this big grin … He was definitely trying to provoke me.”
Wortley insists the editor had already left the room before any words were exchanged and that Gout “was definitely in my face”.
“The bloke’s just trying to make stories out of nothing,” he said.
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