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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n A secret recording that triggered a seven-year defamation battle embroiling politicians including federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has finally been played in court, revealing a businessman coached a contact on how to engineer a land swap with the government that would see \u201ctoxic soil\u201d dumped and buried.<\/p>\n In the 2019 recording, prominent West Australian businessman Greg Poland coached landowner Aaron Grainger, on how to \u201csolve a political headache\u201d for the state government, by facilitating the removal of millions of tonnes of allegedly contaminated soil from an airport development.<\/p>\n Poland, who was recorded without his knowledge in the restaurant of the Subiaco Hotel in Perth, pushed the idea of a land swap, which would allow Grainger to take ownership of a valuable sand-mining site south of Perth in exchange for giving the government a place to dump the allegedly contaminated soil from the development.<\/p>\n Poland encouraged Grainger to send him a letter setting out the plan, and said he would then use his influence as deputy chairman of the Peel Development Commission, to push the plan to then Transport Minister Rita Saffioti and then-regional development minister Allanah MacTiernan.<\/p>\n Grainger repeatedly expressed reservations about the idea.<\/p>\n Related Article Poland, the chairman of Strzelecki Group and owner of multiple commercial and residential developments around WA, is suing this masthead and its former journalists over the publication of two stories based on that recording.<\/p>\n Hastie and former WA Liberal Leader Zak Kirkup have also been drawn into the proceedings over their alleged roles in the dissemination of the recording.<\/p>\n Poland\u2019s lawyer Martin Bennett fought to stop the recording being reported on during Wednesday\u2019s proceedings, questioning its authenticity by saying the format of the recording submitted for use in the trial was an MP4, not an MP3 like the original file was.<\/p>\n He also argued no publication of the recording should be allowed until the final judgment had been made, given one of the things the plaintiff sought was the deletion of the recording in all its formats should his case be successful.<\/p>\n However, Nine\u2019s lawyer Matthew Lewis, SC, argued it was odd that Poland would not want the recording published, given he had maintained throughout the proceedings it would \u201cvindicate\u201d his side of the story.<\/p>\n Justice Matthew Howard considered several points, including that the recording was suggested to have been made illegally, but said no part of the plaintiff\u2019s case argued that the recording contained any defamatory statements.<\/p>\n It remains unclear whether the recording will be able to be submitted as evidence.<\/p>\n In the audio subsequently played in court, Poland can be heard giving advice to Grainger, who owns a block of land in Waroona, about 100 kilometres south of Perth.<\/p>\n Poland and Grainger discuss how to make a deal with the state government to relocate between two and eight million tonnes of \u201ctoxic sand\u201d from a major infrastructure project in the city to Grainger\u2019s land.<\/p>\n \u201cNo way in the world they are going to allow that toxic sand to be spread \u2026 they\u2019ve got to get rid of it,\u201d Poland can be heard saying.<\/p>\n He then tells Grainger that, \u201cwhat we want to say to you is we\u2019re not going to tell you what to do. But I could say in another way, if I was you, this is what I\u2019d probably think\u201d.<\/p>\n In the audio, Poland suggested writing a letter to the state government offering a land-swap deal. If Grainger sold his land to the state government, they could then use it to dump the soil from the airport link development.<\/p>\n In return, Grainger would then own the sand, worth up to $600 million, to be used in construction.<\/p>\n In the audio, Grainger stated he could take two million tonnes of the soil from the airport link project, but that he could take the full eight million tonnes if they allowed him to clear more of his land, and discusses mentioning that in the letter.<\/p>\n Poland then recommended not asking for the permit to clear more land, and to instead offer to take the two million tonnes of soil to start, with the possibility of taking more down the track.<\/p>\n \u201cKeep it simple, they will come straight to you once you\u2019ve done one favour,\u201d Poland says in the audio.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you\u2019ve done one favour, they\u2019ll ring you and they\u2019ll steamroll anything through.<\/p>\n \u201cRita [Saffioti] will just push it through. Alannah [MacTiernan] and Rita will just steamroll it. They\u2019ll just steamroll it.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we could pull this off, whatever you want, Rita would be your friend.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article Grainger, Poland and Lisa Taylor, who was the Peel Development Commission\u2019s commercial manager at the time, then discuss the Waroona site as the ideal location to take the soil, because the area is \u201calready contaminated\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all contaminated anyway \u2026 the advantages of my spot is, I\u2019ve got the shire tip right next door and I\u2019ve got another private tip on the other side of me, and I\u2019ve got Alcoa,\u201d Grainger can be heard saying.<\/p>\n Near the end of the meeting, Poland can be heard thanking Taylor for not taking notes, stating he was \u201cunorthodox\u201d.<\/p>\n Lewis cross-examined Poland, both before and after the recording was played, homing in on his affidavit where the developer claimed the meeting which had been recorded had taken place in a \u201cprivate lounge\u201d.<\/p>\n Poland has also claimed several times the meeting was at 11.30am, which he stood by when documents showed the meeting had been scheduled for 9.30am.<\/p>\n \u201cYou were trying to convey you were in a secluded set-up,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n \u201cWell we were,\u201d Poland replied, before later also stating: \u201cYou should be able to have a private conversation anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis said meeting in one of the main rooms at the Subiaco Hotel was not a private lounge, and suggested Poland had deliberately tried to make the meeting seem more secluded than it was to make a point about why it should not have been recorded.<\/p>\n Poland denied that claim.<\/p>\n After the recording was played, Poland was asked again whether he believed the meeting to be private, due to the audible background noise including children and chairs scraping.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re trying to con me, I won\u2019t be conned,\u201d he replied, claiming anything would sound louder if it was played at an increased volume.<\/p>\n \u201cI was there, you weren\u2019t, sorry to be rude, there was one other customer there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was obviously more than one,\u201d Lewis replied, which Poland denied.<\/p>\n He will return to the stand on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Greg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d650b0e8f1d9089e8bd524b96329990c8525a28c301457d46592a73eb1644950.jpeg\")
Greg Poland arriving at David Malcolm Justice Centre for his court case against WAtoday\/Nine Publishing.Colin Murty<\/p>\n![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/921fabcee77c4dc9ba889a4f0e61cf0c107a7f7a82f09bc2bb1d835a49a2add0.jpeg\")
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Andrew Hastie arrives at court on Monday.Colin Murty<\/p>\n![\"Greg](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/75c399b4bf4f3600500baca8dab594542b3a390831e6cba5cbb9258ede9ed4d4.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3a21ade19e83efa5d41c479a92cf48548b357bb6.png\")
Holly Thompson<\/a> is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-816991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}