Gina Rinehart, Australia’s richest person, is lending a hand to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in her fight against defamation allegations brought by the chief executive officer of the Central Land Council.
The mining mogul’s donation is among hundreds of donations to Nampijinpa Price’s legal battle that were declared on the senator’s interests register on Friday, and first reported by Crikey.
The list, which contains 762 donations given to Nampijinpa Price and declared as being over the $300 disclosure threshold, shows Rinehart’s billion-dollar mining company, Hancock Prospecting, provided an undisclosed sum in early September.
The first donation was provided by construction company Q H & M Birt Pty Ltd, owned by Quentin and Kylie Birt. The Birts provided a $57m donation to an Indigenous sports program in February, according to a social media post by Nampijinpa Price.
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Other donors include a Melbourne Storm director, a former Law Council president and a former One Nation senate candidate, as well as previous donors to the conservative activist group, Advance.
The donations amount to at least $228,600.
Rinehart is a vocal supporter of Nampijinpa Price and watched on from the Senate gallery during her maiden speech in July 2022.
She has described Nampijinpa Price as one of Australia’s most influential politicians for her ability “to speak up for truth about marginalised Indigenous Australians, in particular women and children” in an interview with The Australian newspaper.
Nampijinpa Price was sued by the Central Land Council chief executive, Lesley Turner, over a media release which he claims defamed him.
Turner alleged that the media release published by Nampijinpa Price in July wrongly suggested Turner no longer had the support of the majority of Central Land Council members due to alleged “unprofessional behaviour” and had defamed him.
According to the statement of claim, Turner’s character and personal and professional reputation had been “seriously injured” by the media release and “will continue to suffer hurt and embarrassment and loss and damage”.
It was alleged that the media release implied Turner had “behaved so unprofessionally that it warranted his dismissal” and he was “unfit to continue to occupy the role of CEO”, according to the document.
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According to Nampijinpa Price’s defence, the senator denies the claims within the media release were intended to damage, or further aggravate any damage to Turner’s reputation.
The documents say the senator believed the issue was “significant” and that it was in the “immediate public interest” that she issue a public comment.
The claims within Nampijinpa Price’s media release were published by the NT News in an article titled “No confidence motion against Lesley Turner defeated”.
The newspaper later publicly apologised to Turner and retracted the article.
The case will be heard over seven days in October.