Cringeworthy moments in court as McGowan’s lawyer outmanoeuvres Palmer

Mr Palmer has been excused following a short round of questioning from his own lawyer Peter Gray SC, and court has adjourned until February 26.

Today’s been interesting viewing as one of the country’s most formidable lawyers in Bret Walker SC outmanoeuvred Australia’s most eccentric – and litigious – billionaire.

Mr Palmer lost some of his trademark confidence while under pressure on the stand. Credit: Andrew Meares

Mr Walker interrogated weaknesses in Mr Palmer’s case with extreme accuracy and painted him as a man determined to attack the WA Premier whenever he could. He homed in on Mr Palmer’s extraordinary comments that he believed Mr McGowan had given himself a James Bond-style “licence to kill” with the Balmoral South legislation. This created a cringeworthy moment when he asked the magnate to point out exactly what clause in the legislation would give him that idea.

He also forced Mr Palmer to admit the evidence he had submitted for the trial did not actually prove Mr McGowan lied about the state’s hard border to the WA people – a key pillar of the Premier’s cross-claim. Mr Walker used a raft of adjectives to describe Mr Palmer’s answers, including “silly”, “fanciful” and “evasive”.

Mr Palmer looked uncomfortable throughout the five-hour barrage, but kept his cool.

The court has adjourned until February 26. Mr McGowan and WA Attorney General John Quigley will fly to Sydney to give evidence over that weekend. Justice Lee flagged that he may continue taking evidence from the pair into Monday February 28, and was “happy to sit until they have to get on an airplane”.

This concludes our live blog until the WA parties take the stand. Thanks for reading.

– Hamish

Mr McGowan’s lawyer Bret Walker SC has now taken the court to comments made by Clive Palmer in May 2019 in which he attacked Premier Mark McGowan for stepping into his company’s dispute with Chinese-owned miner CITIC.

The comments were made at a time the state government was exploring options to intervene in a dispute between CITIC and Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy that was threatening the viability of the Sino Iron project in the Pilbara.

At the time Mr Palmer said the Western Australian Premier was unpatriotic and siding with the Chinese government.

The comments are not a part of the trial but Mr Walker has brought them up to demonstrate that Mr Palmer has a past history of making personally offensive accusations against the Premier.

“This is not just criticism, this is sinister innuendo,” Mr Walker says.

Mr Palmer disagrees and says it was “fair political comment.”

We’re back and WA Premier Mark McGowan’s lawyer Bret Walker SC goes straight for the jugular.

Mr Palmer is unable to find anything in transcripts of Mr McGowan’s press conferences from 2020 that show Mr McGowan lied about the health justifications for his hard borders.

Clive Palmer lost his High Court bid to have the border closure ruled illegal.Credit:

“You can’t find anything in the transcript, can you?” Mr Walker asks.

“No,” Mr Palmer replies.

Mr Palmer says the evidence he has is in “reports” referenced in the transcript he has in front of him, but concedes he does not recall what was in the reports.

Mr Walker asks Mr Palmer whether it is “grossly irresponsible” to accuse Mr McGowan of lying without having the evidence to prove it.

Mr Palmer does not agree.

Mark McGowan’s lawyer Bret Walker SC has been probing statements Clive Palmer made in August 2020 that the Premier had was lying to West Australians about his health justifications for the hard border.

Mr Walker has accused Mr Palmer of being unable to find any statement from the Premier that proved he knowingly lied to the WA public.

The state’s Chief Health Officer Andrew Robertson told Mr Palmer’s original High Court border challenge in July 2020, as COVID-19 raged through Victoria, that there would be a 99 per cent chance WA would remain COVID-19 free if it retained its hard border. However, he conceded it would be similarly safe if the state opened to low-risk states.

Court has adjourned to 1.30pm local time (10.30am WA time).

While we wait, here’s a video from when the High Court ruled against that border challenge.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer has told the court he is prepared to accept no damages for the stalled Balmoral South project if the WA government helps him stop the Chinese taking his mining tenements.

Mr Palmer was seeking $27.5 billion in damages from the state over the Pilbara project in a confidential mediation process.

To stop this, on August 11 2020 the government introduced legislation stripping Mr Palmer’s right to damages.

Under questioning from Mark McGowan’s senior counsel, Mr Palmer said he would have been happy to accept $0 through the mediation process – on the proviso that legislation and state agreements would be altered to “stop Chinese government incursion on our tenements”.

Mr Palmer and his company Mineralogy have been locked in years of legal battles with Chinese-owned miner CITIC, who it leases its mining tenements at the Sino Iron project near Karratha. One legal battle revolved around Mineralogy’s refusal to approve a mine expansion in 2018 at Sino Iron, which drew criticism from the WA government.

Mr McGowan’s counsel says Mr Palmer being prepared to accept $0 on the above proviso is “fanciful” and accuses him of making it up on the fly.

He is also grilling Mr Palmer for comments he made in an interview with the ABC’s Hamish MacDonald on August 14 that it was “bullshit” that he was seeking $30 billion from the state, as was suggested by Mr McGowan in a Facebook post.

Mr Walker says this is Mr Palmer attempting to “pooh-pooh” Mr McGowan’s justifications to introduce the legislation, despite his $27.5 billion claim being significant to the state.

Mark McGowan’s lawyer Bret Walker has circled back to Clive Palmer’s ‘licence to kill’ comments in relation to the Balmoral South legislation.

Mr Walker says Mr Palmer must be “working to keep a straight face” when making that suggestion.

WA Governor Kim Beazley signing the anti-Clive Palmer legislation into law.Credit: Nine News Perth

“You don’t seriously maintain that you have ever regarded that this is a statute that authorised Mark McGowan to kill Clive Palmer?”

“Yes I do,” Mr Palmer replies. “I believe he could do that under the Act the way it was drafted.”

The court pauses for a moment as Mr Palmer attempts to find the clauses in the legislation he believes authorised Mr McGowan to kill him.

He points to a part that removes criminal liability of the state in relation to Balmoral South.

At the time, the WA government said those clauses did not provide blanket immunity from criminal law as Mr Palmer was claiming.

“The provisions regarding FOI and the criminal code are intended to limit the extent of resources expended on the various legal assaults launched by Mr Palmer against the WA taxpayers,” a spokeswoman said in August 2020.

WA Premier Mark McGowan’s lawyer Bret Walker SC is now cross-examining Clive Palmer, grilling him on advertisements his company published criticising the Premier in the days following the Balmoral South legislation’s introduction to Parliament.

It is also focusing on Facebook posts from WA Premier Mark McGowan on August 14.

It is a quickfire exchange in which Mr Walker is interrogating Mr Palmer’s recollection of who came up with the advertisements.

Mr Palmer says his employees in WA came up with the advertisements, which represented the company’s views.

Mr Walker says it is absurd to suggest the adverts did not represent Mr Palmer’s views.

Mr Palmer has mentioned fictional spy James Bond’s ‘licence to kill’ and said after reading the Balmoral South legislation he feared for his, his family’s and his employees’ safety.

In particular, Mr Palmer said he was scared upon reading provisions in the act that shielded the WA government from criminal prosecution relating to the Balmoral South legislation.

He likened the provision to laws made in Nazi Germany.

“I couldn’t sleep at night, my wife and children would worry about me, I knew the power of the state to take your property, I didn’t expect when they called me an enemy of the state that this would happen later,” he said.

“I was just scared because I didn’t expect governments to produce that type of legislation in WA.“

Mr Palmer is now being asked about comments made by Mr McGowan in the same time period where he said the state was ‘at war’ with him.

“I didn’t think Western Australia had the power to declare war on anyone,” he said.

Mr Palmer said he felt the comments spelt sayonara for him and his companies continuing to work in WA, which concerned him due to his large workforce in the mining state.

He said the Premier’s comments felt like a personal attack, and stressed him so much, at the height of the sledging he became physically ill and vomited.

“It just got too much for me, I ended up vomiting wondering what we could do” he said.

He said he felt unwell because of his concerns over the Balmoral South amended legislation.

The legislation shielded the state from damages claims from Mr Palmer over the stalled Pilbara mining project.

Mr Palmer said mediation with the state was still occurring just eight days before the legislation to block his claims was introduced to Parliament and that the WA government was drafting the amendments in secret.

“I got really mad that they’d lied to everybody,” he said.

“I felt in one way stupid and in another way just helpless to see what we can do.”

Clive Palmer has taken the stand.

He is discussing comments made by Premier Mark McGowan in August 2020 that he wanted to enter WA to promote anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.

Mr Palmer purchased millions of doses of the drug and in his application for a border exemption said he intended to discuss its use at his operations.

“Him coming to Western Australia to promote a dangerous drug I don’t think was a good thing for our state and I’m pleased the police rejected him,” Mr McGowan said at the time.

Mr Palmer said whether or not it worked for COVID-19 was not a consideration at the time, he just wanted to cover it off as an option for Australians.

Responding to questioning from his senior counsel Peter Gray, Mr Palmer said Mr McGowan’s comments were unfair and attempted to paint him as a “drug dealer”.

Mr Palmer said the Premier had embarked on his election campaign and wanted to paint him as a ‘scape goat’.

The billionaire also mentioned Facebook pages that were created by Western Australians at the time encouraging the community to spit on him if he arrived in the state.

“I was concerned about my personal safety,” he said.