Australian treasurer wins defamation suit, but hit with hefty bill

Australia's Treasurer Joe Hockey holds a news conference after a meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors during the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Washington October 10, 2014. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Australian treasurer's partial victory in a defamation suit against a newspaper publisher took a sour turn on Wednesday when a court ordered he pay 85 percent of his legal bill, a result widely expected to leave him out of pocket.

Conservative Treasurer Joe Hockey, whose government took power in 2013 on a platform of responsible financial management, was "unrealistic" in his claim for Fairfax Media Ltd to pay all his costs, a Federal Court judge said in a ruling obtained by Reuters.