Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price blames CLC chief executive Lesley Turner for poverty and remote housing crisis in defamation hearing
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price faces fiery cross examination in defamation hearing: ‘Are you suggesting that my client is to blame for some sort of inability of the land council to rectify 200 years of disadvantage?’
An outspoken Aussie Senator has doubled down on her claims an Indigenous land council boss was personally responsible for keeping Aboriginal people “in poverty” and he was part of a “cover-up” to silence dissident voices.
On Friday, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price faced cross examination on the fifth day of her high-profile Federal Court hearing, backing a July press release which claimed CLC chief executive Lesley Turner had lost a no confidence vote due to ‘unprofessional conduct”.
Ms Price released a statement claiming Mr Turner had lost the confidence of the “majority” of CLC delegates, but he remained in the role despite a motion of instant dismissal.
Over five days of evidence the CLC has repeatedly stated there was never a motion for instant dismissal, nor a no confidence vote against Mr Turner at the full council Kings Canyon meeting.
Despite withdrawing the truth defence to her defamation claim, Ms Price told the court she believed the content of her media release was correct.
“I only publish things that I believe to be true,” she said.
“So far I have not been wrong in this particular case.”
The Senator conceded despite claiming a “majority” of delegates voted to boot out Mr Turner, she knew the purported motion was held in a men’s only meeting and was unable to confirm how many people were present.
After extensive cross examination, Senator Price conceded: “there was no formal vote”.
When questioned about how Mr Turner could have remained in the role following no confidence vote, Ms Price said at the time she believed there was a “cover up” within the land council.
Mr Turner’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou said this was “not a rational first thought”, but the Senator maintained it was “when there’s such distrust for the land council”.
Ms Price maintained she was simply repeating claims by then CLC Chair Matthew Palmer that she “believed to be true”, and denied it was “unreasonable” to solely rely on his account.
“(Mr Palmer) did not feel it was a working relationship with the CEO and had outlined to me the concerns he had raised, and I think that is significant coming from the chairperson,” she said.
“There were concerns that needed to be looked into, and it was a matter of public importance,” she said.
The Senator said she was not only aware of Mr Palmer’s “dissatisfaction” with Mr Turner, but knew of his plan to replace the well-respected CLC chief executive with then-principal of Yipirinya School, Gavin Morris.
The court heard Mr Morris — who was found guilty of assaulting four of his students last week — told both the NT Chief Minister and Senator Price of the land council coup plot in 2024.
Mr Palmer initially shared the false claims of the no confidence motion to four journalists, with the NT News retracting its initial Sunday article after only an hour.
Despite knowing an article had been taken down, Ms Price’s office sent her press release to more than a 1000 journalists largely repeating Mr Palmer’s unverified claims.
Ms Price became emotional as she explained how she and Mr Palmer were aligned in their concerns about the state of Aboriginal Australians in remote communities.
“He, as well as myself, have buried our people over the years, we’ve seen the destruction,” Ms Price said
“The chairperson wanted the same kind of change that I wanted, to see the lives of Indigenous people improved.”
She doubled down on her claims that it was not just the CLC, but Mr Turner himself, who was personally responsible for people “living in tin sheds”.
However Ms Chrysanthou said this was an “outrageous” claim and based on the Senator not understanding the role and duties of the CEO of a land council.
“(What do) you think he failed to do that would have solved poverty and disadvantage in Indigenous communities?”Ms Chrysanthou said.
“Are you suggesting that those communities were not in that condition a decade ago when you first became a politician?
“Are you suggesting that my client is to blame for some sort of inability of the land council to rectify 200 years of disadvantage to Indigenous persons?”
Ms Price said she did not blame Mr Turner for failing to undo generations of poverty in his three-year tenure, however maintained he had not acted on concerns brought to him by Traditional Owners about the “conditions of their families lives and those communities”.
“He is not exempt of responsibility,” she said.
Ms Price accused Mr Turner of not being responsive to his constituents’ concerns, although admitted she had never tried to have a meeting with the CLC CEO to raise these issues.
“I don’t have faith in the organisation,” she said.
Ms Chrysanthou said by Ms Price’s own logic — after a decade in political life as an Alice Springs Councillor, NT Senator and the former Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister — she was also responsible for the conditions in remote communities.
“I have been trying to ensure that there is change through the inquiries, which I have been stopped in Opposition,” she said.
“I’m not blameworthy, the government is blameworthy.”
The Senator denied Ms Chrysanthou accusations she used the unverified claims of Mr Turner’s internal rival to “plough ahead with your own political agenda, irrespective of how it harmed him”.
Mr Turner maintained he believed Ms Price’s release was part of a self-serving political campaign, by “echoing” and “amplifying” the misinformation.
“With all the information in her press release, it was trying to link her political agenda, against the governance of the Central Land Council and my professional and personal reputation,” he said.
The Territory Senator rose to national political prominence during the referendum in 2023 as a leading Indigenous ‘No’ campaigner, but following the Voice’s defeat she used her position to repeatedly call for greater scrutiny of all land councils.
Mr Turner said he was particularly “outraged” by the Senator’s hypocrisy, having campaigned against the Voice and then claimed the CLC was not listening to their community.
“Every community in Central Australia votes Yes for the Voice,” Mr Turner said.
“That’s my constituents, and I listen to them. I’m not ignoring any voices from my people.”
Ms Price is expected to continue giving evidence on Monday.
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Originally published as Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price blames CLC chief executive Lesley Turner for poverty and remote housing crisis in defamation hearing
