Controversies
In 1999, Laws became a central figure in what has become known as the Cash-for-Comment scandal. During the year, the ABC TV current affairs program Media Watch revealed that Laws and rival talk-back host Alan Jones (then also at 2UE) had been paid to give favourable comments by companies including Qantas, Optus, Foxtel, Mirvac, Telstra and major Australian banks, without disclosing this arrangement to listeners. Media Watch also revealed that Laws had evidently pursued a policy of making repeated unfavourable comments, most notably about the state of the Australian banking industry, but that Laws' stance had dramatically reversed after the signing of secret agreements with businesses which he had previously criticised. The Australian Broadcasting Authority estimated the value of these arrangements at $18 million and found Laws, Jones, and 2UE to have committed 90 breaches of the industry code and five breaches of 2UE's license conditions.
In 2004, both Jones (now at 2GB) and Laws were accused of cash for comment again, after entering into similar deals with Telstra. The ABA subsequently found that Laws' deal constituted cash for comment but Jones' did not.
Laws, apparently angered by what he saw as inequitable treatment, launched stinging attacks on Jones and the ABA's head, David Flint. In an appearance on the ABC's Enough Rope, Laws accused Jones of placing pressure on Prime Minister John Howard to keep Flint as head of the ABA, made comments that many viewers took to imply a sexual relationship between Jones and Flint, and broadly hinted that Jones and Flint were homosexual.
In November 2004, Laws and 2UE colleague Steve Price were found guilty of vilifying homosexuals after an on-air discussion about a gay couple appearing in the reality TV show The Block. They described the gay couple as "young poofs". Laws had previously apologised for another incident in which he called gay TV personality Carson Kressley, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame, a 'pillow-biter' and a 'pompous little pansy prig'.
In August 2007 Laws was again embroiled in controversy after suggesting on-air that "Chinese drivers are probably the worst drivers on the face of the earth." Despite such comments, he denied that he was a racist.
Several community radio stations in regional areas began re-broadcasting the John Laws show circa 2000. Whilst not directly targeting John Laws, this focussed the attention of the ABA onto these stations, for potentially breaching the BSA, and Codes of Practice. Several ABA investigations were held, many finding breaches by the community stations.
In October 2007, West Coast Eagles player Adam Selwood commenced legal proceedings against Laws over comments made about him regarding a mid-year incident involving Fremantle Football Club player Des Headland.
In December 2007, during a long lunch at Sydney's Otto Ristorante to farewell his former personal assistant, he was informed of the presence of rival broadcasters Derryn Hinch and Bob Rogers at another restaurant nearby. Laws went over to their table and immediately began to spout forth a tirade of invective calling them 'the two most despicable cunts' he'd ever met in the industry. Hinch and Laws traded insults with Laws insisting Hinch was a 'hypocrite' and a 'failed alcoholic'. Hinch replied that that must mean Laws was a 'successful one' and that if Laws wasn't in fact an alcoholic then he was a 'bloody good actor'. Eventually 2UE colleague Mike Carlton convinced Laws to return to his table at Otto and Hinch and Rogers were left to laugh off the altercation.
On 7 May 2009 Laws made a statement on the 20th anniversary special edition of the ABC's Media Watch program, in which he exhibited no remorse for his role in the Cash-for-Comment scandal, instead implying that the whistleblower (Media Watch) was the wrongdoer and that the people involved were only jealous of his success.
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