Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused of ‘wilful blindness’ towards Central Land Council chief Les Turner in defamation trial closings
‘She did nothing right, not one thing. She didn’t even try’: Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused of knowingly spreading misinformation on final day of defamation trial.
Outspoken Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been accused of orchestrating a targeted attack on a well-respected Indigenous leader amid her national crusade against the land councils.
On the final day of her defamation hearing, Senator Price was accused of “wilful blindness” to the risk of defaming Central Land Council chief executive Les Turner in a press release to more than 1000 journalists in July 2024.
Ms Price claimed Mr Turner had lost a no-confidence motion due to “unprofessional conduct”, but still remained in his high-paying role.
On Tuesday, his barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC alleged this release was a targeted attack on Mr Turner’s integrity which went to “heart of his professional reputation” amid an internal coup.
Ms Chrysanthou said Ms Price’s “ambiguous” release potentially gave “rise to all sorts of speculation about unsavoury conduct within the workplace, which warranted someone’s dismissal”.
Over seven days the Federal Court heard the Senator’s release came in the backdrop of two political clashes; between the Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister and land councils, and an internal power struggle within the CLC.
Ms Price’s barrister Peter Gray SC said the Senator had a long public record for pushing to reform the Aboriginal controlled organisations, reforming the Land Rights Act and for inquiries into the governance of the land councils.
“It is quite clear that her views on these matters were both long-held and strongly held, and that her views and her advocacy in relation to them came from an overarching national and policy perspective,” Mr Gray said.
“Accusations of unprofessional conduct and loss of support for one CEO were just the latest indication of the sorts of governance issues and problems the Senator had been drawing attention to for years.”
Mr Gray said therefore the claim her target was just one individual, who she did not explicitly name, was “fanciful”.
Ms Price has relied solely on a qualified privilege defence, saying her press release was a matter of public interest and she took reasonable steps to verify its accuracy with her sole source, the then-CLC chair, Matthew Palmer.
A partially translated transcript showed Mr Palmer attempted to move a no-confidence vote at a ‘men’s only’ meeting — usually used to discuss ceremonial business — but it was not formally tabled as it was the wrong ‘jurisdiction’.
The CLC has maintained there was never a no-confidence vote nor a motion to dismiss, and Ms Price has conceded “there was no formal vote”.
The Senator said at the time she had trusted Mr Palmer’s account of the meeting and did not believe it was reckless to not independently verify his account.
But Ms Chrysanthou said it was “naive and dangerous” for a politician or their staffer to simply accept an allegation from a single member of the public, and then repeat it.
She said the Senator’s had “wilful blindness” to the possibility Mr Palmer was mistaken or misleading her office, given Ms Price also knew they had been plotting to replace the chief executive for at least five weeks.
Ms Price confirmed she was aware of a planned “coup” to replace Mr Turner with then-Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris, who was “desperate” to leave the school.
Earlier this month Morris was found guilty of assaulting four of his students in 2023, including choking an eight and 12-year-old.
Ms Price said she was unaware of the police investigation into Morris, and maintained she was not a co-conspirator in the plan to dismiss Mr Turner.
On Tuesday the Senator’s media adviser Damian Wilks revealed he helped Mr Palmer write an initial media release to four journalists, which falsely claimed Mr Turner was dismissed.
Despite knowing a NT News article quoting Mr Palmer had been quickly retracted, Ms Price released her statement that same evening which largely repeated the chair’s claims.
In a recorded call Ms Price told Morris and Mr Palmer her office would ensure the story remained in the “media spotlight” to “keep hitting them hard”, lining up the CLC chair for interviews with other journalists.
Even after the CLC contacted her office to refute the claims, Mr Gray said the Senator believed this denial was part of a “cover up” and was a “bold assertion” against the testimony of the chair himself.
Justice Michael Wheelahan highlighted the purpose of the qualified privilege defence was intended to “protect false statements in the public interest”.
However Ms Chrysanthou said they had to be “innocently false statements … not knowingly false statements”.
“The whole purpose of the privilege is … when someone does everything right, but still gets it wrong — that is not the Senator,” she said.
“She did nothing right, not one thing. She didn’t even try.”
Mr Gray claimed Mr Turner had “downplayed” the impacts of the former CLC chair’s attack, saying it was not realistic for his hurt feelings to be limited only to Senator Price’s release.
He said since Mr Palmer’s claims were republished in the NT News, ABC and other national outlets, it could not be proven Ms Price’s release was directly responsible for any harm or damage.
And Mr Gray highlighted despite the wide-reaching coverage across multiple outlets, Mr Turner only took action against the Senator and the NT News, who settled for $5500 and an apology.
But Ms Chrysanthou said the CLC Chair’s actions did not absolve Ms Price from responsibility.
“She doesn’t get to point to Mr Palmer’s conduct and say ‘well he did it, and so did I’ — this isn’t some schoolyard test,” she said.
Mr Turner and Ms Price’s legal teams will finalise their submissions over the next two weeks, with Justice Wheelahan reserving his decision until a later date.
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Originally published as Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused of ‘wilful blindness’ towards Central Land Council chief Les Turner in defamation trial closings
