Deputy premier Rita Saffioti and former minister Alannah MacTiernan could be witnesses in an ongoing defamation trial, having been subpoenaed to attend.
Property group owner Greg Poland has accused former WAtoday journalists Kate Hedley and Nathan Hondros, and Fairfax Digital Australia & New Zealand, of publishing two articles in 2019 which were defamatory of him.
The two articles were published after an audio recording of a conversation the Strzelecki Group founder had with three other people at the Subiaco Hotel were allegedly leaked to the journalists.
In the recording, which was played in the Supreme Court of WA in an ongoing defamation trial, Mr Poland was heard to be saying that Ms Saffioti and Ms MacTiernan would “push through” a plan to move “toxic soil” from the Forrestfield Airport project to a lot in Waroona.
Mr Poland alleged the articles published in 2019 implied he was corrupt and arranged secret deals between the state government and private businesspeople without due process, the court was told.
Speaking to the court on Thursday, Mr Poland’s lawyer Martin Bennett commented on the defendants' legal team starting to subpoena ministerial records two weeks before the trial started.
“The second thing, after 7.5 years in a flurry of attempt to subpoena the ministers… there was a new subpoena to Ms MacTiernan [in] July,” he said.
After the proceedings, lawyer for the defendants, Matt Lewis, confirmed the ministers, including Ms Saffioti, have been subpoenaed to attend.
Canning MP Andrew Hastie, his ex-staffer David Birch, and former Liberal Party WA leader Zak Kirkup were added as defendants through the years, with Mr Poland alleging they were involved in the dissemination of the recording.
The 46-minute recording has been played in full in the WA Supreme Court, despite Mr Bennett’s opposition to a version of the audio file being tendered as evidence.
In the recording played in court, Mr Poland was heard to be speaking to businessman Aaron Grainger about submitting the plan to move millions of tonnes of sand to state government ministers.
“Once you’ve done them a big favour, they will owe you a favour,” Mr Poland was heard saying in the recording.
“They’ll push it through, Alannah (MacTiernan) or Rita (Saffioti) will just steamroll it.”
Mr Poland is in the middle of cross-examination, having presented evidence from the witness box for the past three days.
The trial continues, with the defendants' lawyers expected to finish their cross-examination of Mr Poland on Friday.
