Billionaire Clive Palmer has experienced “harsh things said about him” publicly before, but not like the repeated “attacks” from West Australian Premier Mark McGowan, a court has heard.
The mining magnate is suing Mr McGowan for defamation, while the Premier is counter-suing Mr Palmer in the Federal Court in Sydney.
Mr Palmer’s lawyer Peter Gray told the court on the first day of the trial that his client was defamed on several separate occasions.
Mr Gray said his client would testify about the impact of Mr McGowan’s comments on him.
“Mr Palmer is a man … who has some experience of having harsh things said about him in the public square,” Mr Gray said on Monday.
“But these attacks, these accusations … are in a different league.
“They are not just the rough and tumble of name calling of a politician.”
Mr Gray said there were two situations that led to the alleged defamation.
The first was WA’s hard border in April 2020, which prompted a legal fight from Mr Palmer that ultimately failed.
The second was over a mining agreement involving Mr Palmer’s company Minerology, which led to the Queenslander launching another legal challenge over the stalled iron ore project in the Pilbara.
The state government swiftly passed legislation to kill off Mr Palmer’s alleged $30bn damages claim.
Mr Gray indicated there would be evidence presented at the trial to show few people knew about the bill before Attorney-General John Quigley introduced it to parliament.
Private text messages between the Premier and Mr Quigley will be revealed at the trial.
Clips were played in court of Mr McGowan making the allegedly defamatory comments about Mr Palmer.
During a press conference in July 2020, Mr McGowan described Mr Palmer as an “enemy of the state” when he urged the federal government not to be involved in the legal fight over the hard border.
“Mr Palmer is an enemy of the state, he is the enemy of Western Australia. He is only focused on himself,” Mr McGowan said in the recording.
The following month, he said Mr Palmer was trying to “promote hydroxychloroquine” in WA on the back of a theory that the anti-malaria drug helped fight Covid-19.
Mr McGowan also said Mr Palmer incorrectly filled in his application to enter WA.
During another press conference, the Premier said Mr Palmer was “behaving erratically and very selfishly” in pursuing his High Court action.
Mr McGowan also said WA was at “war” with Mr Palmer over the hard border.
The Premier’s lawyer Bret Walker said in his opening address that during those press conferences Mr McGowan was responding to questions asked about public comments from Mr Palmer.
Clips were also played of Mr Palmer making his own comments about the Premier, including when he labelled him a liar.
“The Premier was lying to the people of Western Australia,” Mr Palmer said in one recording.
He also likened the WA government’s legislation to allowing Mr McGowan to shoot a person.
“This is an outlaw swinging his gun around to protect himself and his Attorney-General from the criminal law,” Mr Palmer said.
In another video played to the court, Mr Palmer described Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Mr McGowan as “Stalinist” leaders who ran a similar type of government as China.
“I think Andrews and McGowan are in the same mould — they are in the Stalinist, communist mould of this totalitarian government,” Mr Palmer said.
Mr McGowan will testify later during the trial.
In his counter-claim, the Premier alleges his reputation was damaged when Mr Palmer said he repeatedly lied and abused the parliamentary system.
The trial continues.
Outside court, Mr Palmer was asked by reporters whether he would be satisfied if Mr McGowan apologised now.
“No, I think you know, you need to have these things resolved because they’re serious issues,” he said.
Mr Palmer said people shoulxjmtzywd not be accused of being “disloyal to their country.”
“There needs to be boundaries established as to what you can and what you can‘t do,” he said.
“I‘m not a faint-hearted person but I think that’s going too far.”
Mr Palmer also said the defamation case had nothing to do with his United Australia Party.
