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Mark McGowan and Clive Palmer defamation case verdict to be handed down

Peter LawThe West Australian
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Clive Palmer and Mark McGowan are set to learn the outcome of their high-stakes defamation trial.
Camera IconClive Palmer and Mark McGowan are set to learn the outcome of their high-stakes defamation trial. Credit: The West Australian

D-Day has arrived in the two-year defamation battle between Mark McGowan and Clive Palmer, with a Federal Court judge set to deliver his long-awaited verdict on Tuesday.

Justice Michael Lee will hand down his judgment in Melbourne, three months after he warned lawyers for the Premier that there was a prospect none of their defences against defamation claims made by Mr Palmer would succeed.

This opened up the possibility of a damages award to the billionaire — however, this could be as little as $10 because the judge said he had struggled to find any reputational harm suffered by either man out of their war of words.

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WA taxpayers should also finally learn how much it cost the State Government to fund Mr McGowan’s legal defence and the decision to countersue Mr Palmer.

Until now, the Government has refused to reveal the amount of taxpayers’ money that had been used to pay for the Premier’s team of private lawyers.

In September 2020, Mr McGowan said he was confident he had a strong chance of winning and expected Mr Palmer would need to write a “big cheque” to taxpayers.

“Any proceeds from this will go directly back to the taxpayers. I, of course, won’t get a cent out of it. Mr Palmer has been very defamatory. I expect the taxpayers will get a big cheque because of his action,” he said at the time.

Mr Palmer’s claim was based on him being labelled an “enemy of the state” by Mr McGowan amid a flurry of insults fired during press conferences in mid-2020. The mining magnate, meanwhile, accused the Premier of lying to the public about health advice used to keep the borders shut.

In April, Justice Lee questioned whether the public’s view of both men was so “baked in” that anything they said about one another would not be enough to do serious damage.

“This is a case between two political combatants -- they are people who have a reputation that is baked in. There are people who love them, people who hate them -- and people who want both sides to lose,” he said.

Mr McGowan won’t be the only politician nervously awaiting the verdict -- WA Attorney General John Quigley’s credibility took a blow when he admitted making glaring errors in his evidence.

Mr Quigley blamed his blunders in March on memory loss and the pressures of his job, with Justice Lee describing the State’s first law officer’s courtroom performance as: “Not dishonest -- but all over the shop”.

His errors revolved around his knowledge leading up to the introduction of legislation which blocked Mr Palmer’s $30 billion damages claim against the Government over a stalled mining project.

In August 2020, Mr Quigley boasted that the 5pm tabling was done deliberately to prevent Mr Palmer lodging court papers that could potentially keep the damages claim alive.

But in March 2022 he told the court that he in fact hadn’t known the Queenslander could possibly do that until after the Bill was tabled. The next month he returned to court and performed another backflip, clarifying that his initial claims were correct.

At the time, the Premier would not give an unconditional guarantee that Mr Quigley’s job was safe, but praised his work as AG. A damning assessment by Justice Lee could renew pressure to sack the veteran Labor politician from Cabinet.

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