How Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is risking a staggering blow as she quietly wages a high-stakes court fight against Aboriginal leader

EXCLUSIVE 

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is headed for a high-stakes legal showdown with an Indigenous leader from Alice Springs who she says in court documents is unfit for his job. 

Lesley Turner, CEO of the Central Land Council, claims the Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians defamed him in a press release she sent to media outlets six months ago.

The NT News has accepted two stories it published based on similar material were wrong and apologised to Mr Turner – but Senator Price has refused to back down. 

She is now set to face off against Mr Turner in the Federal Court where he has launched a defamation action alleging Senator Price badly damaged his reputation.

Mr Turner has engaged the services of Sue Chyrsanthou SC, who charges $8,000 a day to appear in trials and is considered one of Australia’s top defamation barristers.

Ms Chrysanthou successfully represented TV presenter represented Lisa Wilkinson when she was sued by rapist Bruce Lehrmann, who was found by a Federal Court judge to be a rapist.

She also famously won $2.9million for actor Geoffrey Rush in a defamation case against the Daily Telegraph.

Legal sources estimated that if Mr Turner’s action was successful he could be awarded compensation in the vicinity of $300,000.

Mr Turner is an Arrernte man who has been CEO of the Central Land Council – which covers 777,000 sq km of the continent including most of the Northern Territory – since April 2021. 

Senator Price, who has Warlpiri and Anglo-Celtic heritage, has spent most of her adult life living in Alice Springs and was a prominent opponent of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. 

According to Mr Turner’s statement of claim, on July 21 last year Senator Price sent a press release headed ‘Central Land Council takes matters into their own hands’ to 1591 email addresses on her media distribution list.

The press release did not name Mr Turner but claimed a motion had been moved the previous week to remove him as CEO of the Central Land Council.

‘Through last week’s vote, a majority of Central Land Council members showed their support for the dismissal of the CEO due to unprofessional conduct,’ the press release stated.

Senator Price said the motion to dismiss Mr Turner had been unsuccessful but was backed by the council’s chair, Matt Palmer.

She quoted Mr Palmer as having said, ‘the voices of people in community have been ignored for too long and many in this community are being kept in poverty’. 

‘Voices are ignored, people are left behind and the vision of the Central Land Council has been lost,’ Mr Palmer was further quoted in the document.

‘There is majority support for change of direction and leadership in the Central Land Council, and it is time to get things done that matter for the people in the heartland and homelands of the Council.’

According to Mr Turner’s statement of claim, Senator Price’s release defamed him by suggesting as CEO of the land council he ‘had behaved so unprofessionally that it warranted his dismissal’.

Mr Turner also says the press release would be taken to mean he ‘no longer had the support of the majority of Central Land Council members because of his unprofessional behaviour in that role’.

He further alleges Senator Price implied he ‘was unfit to continue to occupy the role of CEO of the Central Land Council’.

Mr Turner seeks to prove he has been ‘seriously injured in his character and in his personal and professional reputation and has suffered and will continue to suffer hurt and embarrassment and loss and damage’.

He claims that hurt has been aggravated by Senator Price not attempting to check whether the allegations in the press release were correct or to give him an opportunity to respond.

‘[Senator Price] intended that the [press release] be republished in the mass media in order to hurt [Mr Turner] and damage his reputation,’ Mr Turner’s statement of claim alleges.

‘[Senator Price] has not retracted, or apologised, despite being told unequivocally on 22 July 2024 by the CLC that her claims were false.’ 

The contents of Senator Price’s press release were published in an NT News article on July 22 under the headline ‘No confidence motion against Lesley Turner defeated’. 

On August 29, the newspaper apologised for that article as well as another published on July 21 which was based on a press release produced by Mr Palmer, purportedly on behalf of the council.

‘Mr Palmer’s press release stated that the CLC’s board had moved a motion to dismiss chief executive Lesley Turner,’ the apology stated.

‘Mr Turner subsequently contacted the NT News and informed us that the press release was incorrect and no motion was moved. 

‘The NT News apologises to Mr Turner for any hurt or embarrassment caused by the publication of the articles.’

Mr Turner’s statement of claim against Senator Price says: ‘Despite the apology and retraction from NT News, [Senator Price] has still failed to retract her allegations about [Mr Turner].’

Senator Price denies the press release carried the alleged defamatory imputations or that she set out to hurt Mr Turner and damage his reputation by publishing the material.

She asserts in her defence that any imputations found to be defamatory are substantially true, as well as relying on defences of qualified privilege and honest opinion.

Senator Price alleges in her defence that Mr Turner ‘conducted himself in an unprofessional way’ by failing to consult properly with Indigenous constituents living in the area covered by the land council.

She alleges Mr Palmer moved and spoke in favour of a motion during a men-only land council meeting on July 18 to dismiss Mr Turner as CEO for ‘insubordination and unprofessional conduct’.

Senator Price says all 48 male council members at that meeting supported Mr Turner’s dismissal, as did most female delegates, but the motion was not put to a vote.

‘There was majority support of the CLC member delegates that the applicant be removed from his role as CEO of the CLC for unprofessional conduct,’ she states in her tendered defence. 

Senator Price admits she has not retracted or apologised for the media release, other than having removed in from her website in September last year. 

She does not accept the NT News retracted its articles, insisting it published only an apology and clarification. 

In October, Judge Michael Wheelahan ordered Senator Price pay $1,500 in costs after her legal team failed to file a defence within the required time. 

Senator Price will be represented by Peter Gray SC with Barry Dean as his junior. Ms Chrysanthou will be assisted by barrister Nicholas Olson. 

The case returns to court in March.