Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused of ‘using her position’ to defame Central Land Council boss

3 months ago

A seven-day defamation trial against Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in the Federal Court has wrapped in Darwin. The senator is being sued by Central Land Council CEO Lesley Turner over a media release distributed by her office in 2024. The release called for a change in council leadership and repeated claims made by former chairman Matt Palmer, alleging the CEO had faced a no-confidence motion. On the final day the senator was accused of failing to check the truth of her claims about the CLC boss.

Transcript

00:00A week-long clash between two powerful Indigenous representatives, the final day of Central Land

00:08Council boss Lesley Turner's defamation lawsuit against Senator Jacinta Numpajimpa Price.

00:14Looking forward to getting back to Canberra. Mr Turner are you relieved to have this over?

00:18Mr Turner's lawyer Sue Krasanthu telling the court in closing,

00:23Ms Krasanthu said the politician was told her media release contained inaccuracies,

00:33but she chose to push on regardless. She was told her publication was wrong almost immediately,

00:39but she just didn't care. She promoted and promulgated her defamation on Facebook to print

00:45journalists in broadcast interviews and her defamation was repeated and circulated.

00:50In his closing address, the Senator's barrister Peter Gray took a shot at Mr Turner's credibility,

00:57saying he'd downplayed the impacts of the then-Council Chairman Matt Palmer's allegations,

01:02which were published prior to the Senators, and appeared in several media stories by the NT News

01:08and the ABC. Mr Gray submitted Mr Turner had likely not suffered any damage at all, but if he had it

01:15could be overwhelmingly attributed to the mass media coverage of Mr Palmer's claims.

01:21Mr Gray told the court Senator Numpajimpa Price had been agitating and advocating for more scrutiny

01:27on Aboriginal land councils for years, and her comments in 2024 weren't an individualised attack,

01:34but rather a continuation of her advocacy to gain traction on the issue.

01:39The claim that her real objective was to cause harm to one individual who she didn't name and had only

01:45ever met once is we submit fanciful. After several hours of submissions from both parties and seven

01:52days of evidence, Judge Michael Wheelahan reserving his decision.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused of ‘using her position’ to defame Central Land Council boss

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