Random House publishes retraction for Gillard autobiography

Random House has published a retraction and apology over an allegation against senator Nick Xenophon in Julia Gillard’s autobiography.

In a statement the publisher said that ‘on page 320 of the first edition of Julia Gillard’s autobiography, My Story, an allegation appeared that independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, was “infamously excluded from university for a period as punishment for stuffing a ballot box full of voting papers he had somehow procured.”’ The publisher said that it ‘retracts the allegation, now accepts that the allegation was false, and sincerely apologises to Nick Xenophon for any harm, embarrassment and distress caused’.

The statement was published in the Age, Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, the Australian and the Adelaide Advertiser, and can be viewed on the Random House website.

A spokesperson for the publisher said the case was ‘settled on terms satisfactory to both parties’ and that the ‘current edition of the book contains the necessary corrections; we will not be undertaking any pulping’.