Secret tape embroiling WA politicians, businessmen, in defamation trial publicly released

The secret recording at the centre of a long-standing defamation trial embroiling federal and West Australian politicians, businessmen and journalists has been publicly released for the first time.

Perth property developer Greg Poland has taken former journalists from this masthead to court over the publication of two stories based on a covert recording of a meeting held at the Subiaco Hotel back in 2019.

In the recording, which has been played in court multiple times, Poland can be heard offering advice to a businessman named Aaron Grainger on a way to obtain a Myalup sand mining operation, in exchange for giving the state government a place to dump between two and eight million tonnes of “toxic” soil from one of its Metronet projects.

Poland can be heard suggesting then-Transport Minister Rita Saffioti, and former Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan, had asked him to find a solution to the problem regarding the disposal of that soil from the Forrestfield Airport Link redevelopment.

He also suggests that if you do a favour for either minister, they would “just steamroll anything through”.

The audio included above is clipped together from various sections in the recording, when Poland is discussing his relationship with both politicians.

In a separate discussion within the same recording, Poland also claimed credit for the state government’s lobster plan, but said then-Fisheries Minister Dave Kelly had “f—ed it up”.

“I don’t like the way they took the idea and changed it, so the government owned the licences,” Poland told the court during the trial earlier in the year.

All three state government ministers have since testified that Poland did not have the full influence he claimed to have in the recording.

Much of the trial has been focused on whether the recording, taken without Poland’s knowledge, should be admissible as evidence under the Surveillance Devices Act.

Poland’s lawyer Martin Bennett argued the meeting was held in private and therefore should not be used as evidence.

He also referenced a section of the audio in which Poland enacts Chatham House rule, which he claimed was “legally binding and means what you say here cannot be used.”

But the defence claimed the meeting was held in a public place, with plenty of other people present at the time, and the rule does not have that meaning and therefore did not apply.

While Justice Matthew Howard is yet to rule on whether the recording has breached the surveillance act Surveillance Devices Act, he ultimately accepted the recording into evidence, and publicly released it on Wednesday.

There have been a string of witnesses called to provide evidence during the trial, including federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie who admitted he was the one who passed on the recording to journalist Nathan Hondros.

The last two witnesses were called on Wednesday – Hastie’s former media advisor David Birch and former WA Liberal Leader and Member for Dawesville Zak Kirkup.

Kirkup in particular was quizzed on his knowledge of the recording. While he admitted he had been sent the audio, he claimed he had not listened to it.

He also denied remembering what was discussed during a string of phone calls between himself, Hastie and Hondros on the day the first article was published.

He claimed it could have been about any number of issues at the time, and also said he and Hondros were friends.

Bennett suggested Kirkup was “discussing the recording with Andrew Hastie because it was of political benefit if there was a secret deal with Labor Party ministers” – a suggestion that was denied.

“The frequency of the calls is unusual, isn’t it?,” Bennett asked, to which Kirkup replied, “No”.

Both parties will present their closing submissions in the following days before Justice Howard takes time to consider his decision.