Colin Craig might try politics again

  • 04/10/2016
Colin Craig (Getty)
Colin Craig (Getty)

Colin Craig isn't ruling out attempting a political comeback once he's sorted out his legal woes.

On Friday the ex-leader of the Conservative Party was ordered to pay Jordan Williams more than $1.2 million, and on Monday it emerged he was forced to give his former press secretary Rachel MacGregor $128,780 after breaching a confidentiality settlement for his own benefit.

But the wealthy property manager, who poured millions of dollars of his own money into the Conservative Party, isn't ready to cut his losses - not ruling out a return to the political fray.

"I love the party and I am happy to help the party out of course, but I think we need to be a little bit careful about saying yes or no to hypotheticals."

The party, which polled 4 percent at the 2014 election and only narrowly missed out on getting into Parliament, unravelled amid rumours Mr Craig had sexually harassed Ms MacGregor.

He says it's up to the party if they want him back, but it won't be any time soon.

"Politics for me is really on hold until I get through the various legal issues I am working through. So any discussions about any role I may play in the Conservative Party, or any other party, is a little bit premature at this stage."

Ms MacGregor's lawyer Hayden Wilson says she wants to put the "unpleasant" saga behind her.

"She's relieved that she's finally able to point to this decision and the way that it indicates her conduct throughout this whole exercise around confidentiality, and she's quite hopeful this will be the last chapter."

He says the size of the settlement between the pair - the largest ever awarded by the Human Rights Review Tribunal for emotional harm - shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone involved.

"Those breaches were extensive, they were calculated and [they were] engineered to happen on occasions of maximum publicity. Ms MacGregor suffered significant humiliation, significant loss of dignity and significant injury to her feelings."

The agreement was supposed to settle a pay dispute and Ms MacGregor's sexual harassment claim, which Mr Craig breached by publically portraying her as a mistress, troublemaker and a liar.

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