The boss of one of Australia’s biggest land councils has denied being “embarrassed” by “failures” of the council under his leadership, while giving evidence in his defamation case against senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
The chief executive of the Central Land Council, Lesley Turner, is suing the senator over a media release distributed by her office to more than 1,000 journalists last year which claimed he had lost the support of his councillors and called for a change in leadership.
The release echoed comments made by the then chair, Matthew Palmer, who claimed Mr Turner had faced a no-confidence motion which had been voted down during a meeting of male delegates in July 2024.
Lesley Turner says he was “disgusted” by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s platforming of the no-confidence motion claims. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
While giving testimony on Thursday, Mr Turner said he was “shocked”, “hurt” and “very angry” when Mr Palmer’s claims of the no-confidence motion made headlines in the NT News.
He told the court he was “disgusted” by the senator’s release and said she had “promulgated” Mr Palmer’s claims by providing comments to the media.
During cross examination by the senator’s barrister, Peter Gray SC, Mr Turner was questioned at length about an audit conducted by the Australian National Audit Office of the CLC in 2023, which found the council did not have systems in place to manage the risk of fraud.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the man attempted to contact her for a number of years. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
During cross examination, Mr Gray put to the witness that he was not “disgusted” but rather “embarrassed by the failures of the CLC under your watch that [Senator Nampijinpa Price] was pointing out”.
Mr Turner denied that suggestion and rejected another that the council’s risk of fraud procedures were “defective”.
In her affidavit, Senator Nampijinpa Price expressed concerns about the “large amounts of money” handled by the council and the “lack of fraud controls” which could “allow, if not encourage abuse, fraud and corruption”.
Mr Turner described those claims as “ill-informed, baseless and offensive”.
Senator wins bid to bar man from defamation trial
Senator Nampijinpa Price won her bid to have man she claims “harassed” her excluded from the court room for the remainder of the hearing after a “safety” concern arose earlier in the week.
On the second day of the hearing, Keith Gregory — who the senator claimed was under orders from Australian Federal Police (AFP) not to approach or speak to her — entered the courtroom.
Keith Gregory sat in the Darwin courtroom where the defamation trial of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was taking place. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
The court later heard the AFP did not have any “specific concerns” about the senator’s safety that would warrant police action.
The senator’s lawyer made an application to have Mr Gregory barred from attending proceedings.
Justice Michael Wheelahan granted the request on Thursday morning.
Defamation trial derailed over bid to have man excluded from court
In the affidavit, Senator Nampijinpa Price said Mr Gregory had visited her electoral office on several occasions, and attempted to contact her via email and social media over four years.
The court heard Mr Gregory had been advocating for a program to address the sexual abuse of Indigenous children, for which he was seeking the senator’s support.
Under cross examination by Sue Crysanthou SC — the lawyer representing Mr Turner’s defamation claim — the senator said contact from Mr Gregory had become “more angry and abusive” over time.
The senator also expressed concerns about the wellbeing of her children.
“He certainly had eyes on me outside the court room and that felt quite uncomfortable when someone has consistently tried to contact me, harass me, is sitting there gazing on me while I’m trying to appear in this trial,” she said.
The court heard Mr Gregory posted on social media that the AFP came to his home and gave him a warning at the senator’s request — a tactic he likened to that of “Nazis or Gestapo”.
In handing down his decision on the application, Justice Wheelahan referenced a letter Mr Gregory sent to the court apologising for any disruption to proceedings.
“He stated that it was never his intention to make Senator Price feel unsafe or threatened by his presence, and that he deeply regretted that his attendance might have caused her any distress,” the justice said.
In the letter, Mr Gregory said he attended court because he was unable to hear proceedings clearly via the online stream.
Mr Gregory has not entered the courtroom since Tuesday.