Three years after opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie was dragged into a legal stoush between WAtoday’s owner Nine Entertainment and Perth property developer Greg Poland, a Supreme Court Justice has thrown out the case against him.
Poland is suing WAtoday over two articles published in 2019 about his involvement in a plan to dump toxic soil from the Perth Airport Link rail project in Perth’s Peel region and a failed WA Labor bid to nationalise a portion of the rock lobster industry.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Poland claims the articles portrayed him as corrupt and exerting improper influence over the WA Labor government.
Since the original defamation action, Poland added former WA Liberal leader Zak Kirkup, Hastie and two of his political staffers to his action, claiming they were part of a conspiracy with WAtoday reporters to damage his reputation.
The stories stemmed from a covertly recorded meeting between Poland and a Peel landowner in early 2019. Poland claimed the audio was recorded illegally and sent to Hastie’s office, which he claimed sent it to WAtoday.
Poland is seeking damages for his alleged defamation and the alleged conspiracy between WAtoday, Hastie, Kirkup and the staffers “to injure him by unlawful means”.
But that claim is now in tatters following a decision by Supreme Court Justice Paul Tottle on May 3.
In a previous decision late last year striking out the conspiracy portion of Poland’s statement of claim, Tottle said the claim was based on “nothing more than speculation and suspicion”.
“It contains much material that is both unnecessary and irrelevant,” Tottle said in his decision.
“Notwithstanding its length the statement of claim does not articulate with sufficient clarity the precise factual basis on which it is contended the defendants conspired to harm the plaintiff.”
Some of the paragraphs struck out included a tranche of claims relating to 40 phone calls and attempted calls made between Hastie, Kirkup and former WAtoday reporter Nathan Hondros over 51 hours leading up to the articles being published.
Poland argued the timing of the calls in relation to the audio being disseminated and the publication of the articles provided facts from which a conspiracy could be inferred.
But a request by Nine’s lawyers to prevent Poland from re-pleading the conspiracy claims was rejected by Tottle who said he should not be deprived of that opportunity.
However, Tottle also raised concerns about the costs and resources involved in continuing the long-running case.
“On the materials presently before the court I am concerned that the resources of both the court and the parties required to determine the conspiracy claim are wholly disproportionate to the amount claimed by the plaintiff,” he said.
Tottle has since, in a decision handed down on May 3, rejected an attempt by Poland to re-plead the conspiracy claims that were struck out. Tottle’s decision is a win for Nine and Hastie, who was represented by Nine lawyers in the long-running legal battle.
Hastie declined to comment.
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