Peter Gray

Comments made about Clive Palmer by Western Australia premier Mark McGowan in press conferences were “heavy with historical and sinister significance”, a court has heard on the first day of trial in the mining billionaire’s defamation case. 

A judge who has been an enthusiastic lab rat in the virtual hearing experiment forced on the country’s courts by the COVID-19 pandemic has expressed doubts that he is accurately reading witnessses giving remote evidence.

Western Australia premier Mark McGowan has been ordered to appear in person in a Sydney court to give evidence at trial in a defamation case by mining billionaire Clive Palmer, but a judge has pushed back the hearing so McGowan can attend state parliament.

Clive Palmer has won his bid to view text messages between Western Australian premier Mark McGowan and the state attorney-general discussing a bill to ban the billionaire mining magnate from suing the state for $30 billion.

The court has given the green light to an amended defamation defence by Clive Palmer which accuses Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan of “disgraceful and dishonourable conduct” and abusing his position by hastily and secretly enacting legislation that barred the billionaire mining magnate from suing the state for $30 billion.

Embattled Sydney accountant Vanda Gould has lost his defamation case against the Commissioner of Taxation, with a court finding Chris Jordan’s defamatory comments constituted a “robust”, but proportional, counter-attack to Gould’s public disparagement of the Australian Tax Office.

Nine subsidiary Fairfax Media has agreed to pay compensation to a Papua New Guinea politician who sued the publisher for defamation for allegedly engaging in a “smear campaign”, with a judge making an order of compensation despite a “ludicrous” objection from Fairfax.

The High Court has found that media outlets are responsible for the publication of defamatory third-party comments on news stories posted to their Facebook pages, upholding a landmark decision by the NSW Supreme Court.

A judge overseeing a Papua New Guinean politician’s defamation lawsuit has criticised Nine’s refusal to take down two allegedly defamatory articles ahead of a delayed trial, saying there was no reason to keep them online except for the publisher’s “pride or ego”.

A judge has partially struck out mining magnate Clive Palmer’s defence to WA Premier Mark McGowan’s defamation claim over statements which allegedly accused the premier of corruption, abusing his position and lying about the decision to close the state’s borders at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.