West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has been grilled in court about private text messages he sent to a colleague in which he described billionaire Clive Palmer as the “worst Australian who is not in jail”.
Mr McGowan and the mining magnate are suing each other for defamation in the Federal Court in NSW, where evidence has been heard about their legal fight over the WA hard border, a stalled iron ore project, arbitration and legislation that blocked Mr Palmer’s ability to claim almost $30bn in damages.
Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Mr Palmer’s barrister Peter Gray xjmtzywrevealed the secret text messages exchanged between Mr McGowan and his Attorney-General John Quigley.
“I suspect there are worse Australians out there who are not in jail and I was probably exaggerating a little bit,” Mr McGowan testified on Wednesday.
“I don’t have a high opinion of him and I don’t like him.”
Mr McGowan agreed it was a “pretty severe, damning indictment”.
The court was also told that Mr Quigley referred to Mr Palmer as “BFL”, which stood for “big, fat liar”.
“Get between the BFL and a stack of money and anything goes,” Mr Quigley said in one text.
“Just tell the BFL that Q is not going to fold to intimidation.”
Mr McGowan replied: “BFL – brilliant.”
The Premier said he had “a lot of familiarity” with the children’s book Big Friendly Giant because he had read it to his children, so he found the BFL reference to be “somewhat amusing”.
After Mr McGowan publicly described the Queenslander as an “enemy of the state”, Mr Palmer’s legal team wrote to the Premier.
A Facebook page also emerged urging people to cough on Mr Palmer at Perth Airport, a plea that Mr Gray described as “co-ordinated coughing fest”.
“You knew, didn’t you, that there was the possibility or risk that some of the things you were saying about Mr Palmer was creating this kind of consequence?” Mr Gray said.
But Mr McGowan said he doubted he would have been particularly concerned, suggesting it was “more satirical than real”.
“I knew he wasn’t coming here because he refused to put in a G2G application,” Mr McGowan said.
“There was obviously some hostility in the community to Mr Palmer, but my view was it was brought about by his own conduct.”
Asked whether he believed he could ignore the concerns from Mr Palmer’s lawyer, the Premier replied: “Yes.”
“I don’t believe that I should be constrained in defending the interests of the state,” he said.
Separately, Mr McGowan said WA was at “war” with Mr Palmer.
“Mr Palmer was such a dangerous, threatening figure that the state had to put itself on a war footing?” Mr Gray asked.
“All because he had asked the High Court to rule on your border legislation?”
Mr McGowan said it was also because he was aware of the $30bn damages claim, even though it was not public knowledge at the time.
“You fight a war against an enemy don’t you?” Mr Gray said.
“You did not mean just an opponent in a court case did you? … That evidence by you, in your affidavit, was false.”
Mr McGowan rejected Mr Gray’s assertions.
Mr Gray also asked the Premier about a series of front pages in Perth’s daily newspaper that depicted Mr Palmer as a cane toad, the character Dr Evil and a cockroach.
The barrister revealed Mr McGowan exchanged text messages with the proprietor of The West Australian Kerry Stokes, describing the front pages as “marvellous” and discussing the Bill.
“I appreciate the support enormously,” Mr McGowan wrote.
“All the mealy-mouthed tut-tutting by some people about Palmer’s ‘rights’ makes me sick.”
Turning to comments made by Mr Quigley about the legislation, Mr Gray noted he had likened the situation to a boxing match.
“Like my new neighbour Danny Green says, you’ve just got a jab, jab, jab, right and move him over to the left, and then just knock him down with the right or left hook,” Mr Quigley said.
Mr McGowan appeared to have a smirk on his when he said he did “not really” agree with Mr Quigley’s comment.
“He is using some extravagant language,” Mr McGowan said.
Grilled further about the drafting of the Bill, Mr McGowan admitted he had said some “nasty” things about Mr Palmer.
Asked whether Mr Quigley was “boasting” about their clever strategy to distract Mr Palmer, he replied: “I don’t know if the word distract is correct.”
“I think he was indicating that he and I were somehow quite clever in regards to this. I think that would be the implication,” Mr McGowan added.
Mr Gray also questioned the Premier about his evidence in court during which he said Mr Palmer’s “crazed language and behaviour” gave people licence to issue death threats against him and his family, including sending white powder to his wife and threatening to behead his children.
Another example he had given was a woman ramming her car into a power pole outside his home.
Mr McGowan reiterated that the businessman had “contributed” to the attitudes of some people targeting him.
But Mr Gray questioned him on the power pole incident, which the Premier had publicly stated was an anti-vaxxer.
The barrister noted police had later stated the incident was a drunk-driver and they were not targeting Mr McGowan.
He further suggested the Premier had lied when he gave his evidence, but Mr McGowan insisted that was the advice he had received from police.
Mr McGowan said when his children went to help the woman she “screamed anti-vax sentiments at them and then ran off into the darkness”.
Mr Quigley will also testify during the trial.
Mr Palmer previously told the court that he believed a law passed in WA gave Mr McGowan power to murder him with impunity.
“That was my analysis – that the scope was wide open and I acknowledge that murder was an extreme,” he told the court.
Mr Palmer even likened the situation to a James Bond film and Nazi Germany.
“I was a bit frightened what they might to do me or my family … they could really do anything to me,” he said.
“I then thought about James Bond movies … how would you licence someone to kill? I didn’t know what the limits might be.
“I did think about … what happened in Nazi Germany and how that legislation was framed … I guess I was racing all over the place because I didn’t know a rational explanation for this.”
The trial continues.
