Former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella recorded conversation with Ken Wyatt

Ex-Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella recorded a conversation with Ken Wyatt where he told her ‘you didn’t push me’.

Former Liberal frontbencher Sophie Mirabella, left, arrives at Wangaratta Magistrates Court. Picture: AAP.

Former Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella secretly taped a conversation with Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt in which he refutes claims that she pushed him to prevent a photo being taken featuring him and the Member for Indi Cathy McGowan, a court has heard.

Ms Mirabella is suing Victorian regional newspaper The Benalla Ensign and its former editor Libby Price over an article which reported the former Member for Indi, Ms Mirabella, “publicly pushed” Ms McGowan to avoid the photo being taken during the 2016 election campaign.

Ms Mirabella yesterday told the County Court the offending article had “no ambiguity” in the wording that she had “publicly pushed” Ms McGowan.

“This was accusing me of assaulting my political opponent,” she said.

“This was accusing me of pushing an older woman who I know looks like she’s old enough to be an elderly citizen, a grandmother.”

The court sitting at Wangaratta previously heard that lawyers for the newspaper claim the article was “substantially true” and Ms Mirabella had placed her hands on Mr Wyatt’s chest.

Ms Mirabella yesterday told the court she was “stunned” when she learned of the defence because she had never heard an allegation that Mr Wyatt was pushed.

“It was just outrageous, it was being defamed a second time,” she said.

“I was just shocked, how could they just pull this out of the air just because they needed a defence.”

She told the court she knew she had to speak to Mr Wyatt and try to get him on the record.

She said she attended a Liberal Party gathering in Sydney last year and followed Mr Wyatt out of the auditorium to speak with him.

“I said to him ‘Ken, the newspapers are now saying that I didn’t push Cathy, that I pushed you’,” Ms Mirabella told the court.

“He said to me ‘well you didn’t push me’.”

Ms Mirabella said she wanted to be able to take the conversation to her lawyers.

David Gilbertson QC, for the defendants, asked Ms Mirabella whether she told Mr Wyatt about the recording.

“Politicians don’t like to get involved in legal matters,” Ms Mirabella replied.

“Who wants to get involved in something murky... I wanted to avoid all of this [legal proceedings] by having something on the record.”

Mr Gilbertson said her conduct of not informing Mr Wyatt of the recording was “deceitful”.

Ms Mirabella denied the description and said the conversation occurred in an open forum where people could have listened and joined in.

“I thought it was a good opportunity to have a chat with him, especially after the shocking defence that I was supposed to have pushed him,” she said.

Ms Mirabella told the court she had started legal proceedings after she lost the 2016 election and after the newspaper had published an apology six months after the original article because she still wanted “my name cleared” despite no longer being a politician.

“I’m not an invisible person... I didn’t want my children to think this is what I did,” she said.

“I didn’t want them to say ‘Mum, if it was so wrong why didn’t you fix it’.”

Ms Mirabella broke down in tears as she described her reaction to initially reading the article and her feeling of powerlessness to correct the record.

“I have copped all sorts of name calling... nothing compares to this accusation,” she said.

Sophie Mirabella. Picture: AAP.

‘I’M NO DELICATE WALLFLOWER’

Ms Mirabella earlier said she is not a “sensitive, delicate wallflower”, but broke down in tears as she told the court the impact the allegedly defamatory article had on her.

The court heard Indi MP Cathy McGowan had sought a photo with Liberal Minister Ken Wyatt when he visited Benalla, in northeast Victoria, to open a new wing of an aged care facility.

Ms Mirabella told the court she was against the idea of a photo depicting Ms McGowan and Mr Wyatt together as it would be a “perpetuation of this myth that Ms McGowan was Liberal lite”.

She said she told Ms McGowan that she objected to the photo and said: “If you wanted to have promotional material with Liberal ministers you should have run for Liberal preselection”.

Ms Mirabella said the offending article had “no ambiguity” in the wording that she had “publicly pushed” Ms McGowan.

“I was being accused of assault,” she said.

“This was accusing me of assaulting my political opponent. This was accusing me of pushing an older woman who I know looks like she’s old enough to be an elderly citizen, a grandmother.”

Ms Mirabella said the article was “a total whack as a candidate in a high profile election”.

“I knew this would totally blacken my name and make me out as something I was not,” she said.

“I’m not a sensitive, delicate wallflower ... to be effective and survive in politics you can’t be.”

Ms Mirabella broke down in tears as she described her reaction to reading the article and her feeling of powerlessness to correct the record.

She told the court she took part in a Sky News debate with Ms McGowan and the other Indi candidates the day after the article was published.

“I wasn’t in the best shape to attend the debate but you just have to keep carrying on,” she said.

She told the court the allegation was the first issue of the debate and she had expected her political opponent Ms McGowan to correct the record however Ms McGowan didn’t.

“The wrongness of that, the injustice of that, the unfairness of that,” Ms Mirabella told the court.

Cathy McGowan. Picture: Kym Smith.

“I have copped all sorts of name calling ... nothing compares to this accusation.”

The court has heard the allegation had been repeated by other news outlets including a satirical website.

“Once they start making fun of you about a particular thing, it sticks even more, it’s worse,” Ms Mirabella said.

“You can’t really fight humour can you?”