At the heart of his defamation case against Fairfax Media is the North Sydney Forum (NSF), a Liberal Party fundraising body which charged members thousands of dollars in membership fees.

Mr Hockey contends a series of articles published by Fairfax last year, which suggested he provided "privileged access" to paid members of the NSF, conveyed that he was corrupt and accepted bribes to influence his policy.

Mr Hockey says he was kept at "arm's length" from the forum and he understood membership fees and donations went to Liberal Party head office.

But the forum's application form, available on its website, says it "seeks to build the much-needed financial resources to support Joe Hockey and the Liberal team heading into the future".

It also gives those who cannot become paying members the choice of making "a donation to assist Joe Hockey".

Under cross-examination on Tuesday, Mr Hockey said the application form stating people could donate to him is was "clearly misleading".

"I have accepted no money at all," Mr Hockey said. Asked if the invitation was a matter of "grave concern" to him, Mr Hockey said, "I accept that".

Mr Hockey told the court the forum was intended to be a local business chamber. He said he he did not have a forum membership list and was not specifically aware that members included overseas or interstate based companies and lobby groups.

Fairfax Media's barrister, Matthew Collins, QC, said the member companies that were not based in North Sydney included New Zealand-based poker-machine manufacturer the Fortune Corporation; Melbourne-based investment banks Deutsche Bank and UBS; and Melbourne-based transport and logistics company Asciano.

Lobby group members included the Australian Hotels Association and Financial Services Council.

Dr Collins said such organisations were "well beyond your concept of what the North Sydney Forum is about".

Mr Hockey said: "The North Sydney Forum chooses who its members were and people choose to join. I had no control over who was joining or not joining."