BY MIKLOS BOLZA for AAP
DARWIN, NT. — A Liberal senator who accused the head of a large Aboriginal land council of failing remote communities has rejected suggestions she was also to blame for the same people’s predicament.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been sued by Central Land Council chief executive Lesley Turner over an allegedly defamatory press release from July 2024 that claimed there had been a failed no-confidence motion against him.
The release also accused Mr Turner of unprofessional conduct by failing to help poverty-stricken Aboriginal people who were living in tin sheds.
As the Federal Court defamation trial continued on Monday in Darwin, Mr Turner’s barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC suggested Senator Nampijinpa Price held more power than the land council boss to make change due to her position as a politician.
“If anyone’s to blame in the Indigenous community … you hold more blameworthiness than my client,” Ms Chrysanthou said.
“I’m in opposition,” the senator replied.
Senator Nampijinpa Price stuck by her claims that Mr Turner had some responsibility in his administrative role, saying it was his choice how to allocate funding from the council.
She had heard of perceptions among Traditional Owners that the land council boss was spending more time in Canberra than in his hometown of Alice Springs, the court heard.
Former school principal Gavin Morris got in touch with the senator in June 2024 to discuss “big movements” coming within the land council, the trial was told.
“They are planning a coup and getting rid of CEO and executive,” he texted.
“That’s fantastic,” she replied.
Morris was passing on information he gained from land council chair Matt Palmer, who then discussed a draft resolution to oust Mr Turner at a men-only meeting in July 2024.
No formal vote was cast and Mr Palmer himself was later removed as chair, the court heard previously.
Senator Nampijinpa Price said she advised Morris not to take on the role of chief executive because he was needed at his school.
She denied knowing at the time of allegations the principal had assaulted four students at the school.
He was charged in August 2024 and in October 2025 was convicted for choking two students and dragging two others along the ground while shouting racist slurs at them.
In June or July 2024, the senator heard Morris was “desperate” to leave the school and take Mr Turner’s job as head of the land council.
“It didn’t occur to you to be concerned that his motive in communicating this matter to you … was his own self-interest?” Ms Chrysanthou asked.
“I wasn’t concerned with his motive – I was concerned with what the chair was expressing,” Senator Nampijinpa Price replied.
While she got a staffer to help Mr Palmer draft a press release about the upcoming move against Mr Turner, she denied she had participated in the coup.
Mr Turner is seeking damages against the Liberal politician after previously settling with the News Corp-owned NT News for $10,000 over articles published about the ouster bid.
The trial continues.
