Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should have verified claims about the head of an Aboriginal land council before publicly harming his reputation, a defamation trial has heard.
Central Land Council chief executive, Lesley Turner, has brought federal court proceedings alleging the senator defamed him through a July 2024 press release.
That release falsely said there had been a no-confidence motion against him by council delegates, he said.
Nampijinpa Price had given weight to the claim by repeating it publicly, Alice Springs-based health official Dr John Boffa told the court in Darwin on Tuesday after being called as a witness by Turner’s legal team.
“A senator of the Crown can’t just parrot what someone else has said without thinking about it and trying to verify it independently,” he said under questioning by the conservative politician’s barrister, Peter Gray SC.
The land council’s chair, Matthew Palmer, had spoken with the NT News and the ABC before the senator issued her media release, telling the outlets there had been a vote and the majority wanted Turner gone.
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Gray’s suggestions that Nampijinpa Price had simply assumed Palmer’s statements were correct were rejected in court.
Boffa, the chief medical officer at the Central Australian Aboriginal Health Congress, instead argued the senator had added a “new twist” to the claims, accusing Turner of unprofessional conduct as well.
Reports on the internal spat had caused reputational damage because the “bush telegraph” was so good at spreading negative stories, he said.
“I think that his reputation took a hit from this and mud sticks,” Boffa added.
The damage was done through a perception that Turner had gone rogue and remained on despite the vote against him.
Any view that he had lost the community’s support was very serious for the head of an Aboriginal organisation, Boffa said.
Palmer’s allegations were published by the NT News, but the newspaper later pulled the article and issued an apology.
The senator and her staff failed to question inconsistencies in the Palmer press release or confirm matters with sources before going ahead with their defamatory release, Turner’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC earlier told the court.
The senator has dropped a truth defence and is relying on a defence of qualified privilege to avoid court-ordered damages.
She has also denied Turner suffered any hurt due to her conduct.
In September, Nampijinpa Price was dropped from the shadow ministry for refusing to support the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and failing to apologise for controversial comments about Indian migrants.
A “security concern” raised shortly before the court broke for lunch prompted police to be called and prevented Nampijinpa Price sitting in on part of the proceedings.
“My client is not in the court at the moment because of the concern that I refer to,” Gray told the hearing.
“The concern, as I say, is a security concern,” he said.
A Northern Territory police spokesperson said they were called about “an individual within the Darwin court house”.
“The incident was handled by court staff prior to police arrival and officers were subsequently not required,” they said.
The hearing continues.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
