The chief executive of one of Australia's largest Aboriginal representative bodies has accused Jacinta Nampijinpa Price of "amplifying" false claims "for her own political agenda" while giving evidence in the senator's Federal Court defamation trial.
Central Land Council (CLC) chief executive Lesley Turner is suing Senator Nampijinpa Price over a media release distributed by her office in July 2024, which claimed Mr Turner had lost the support of fellow councillors and called for a change in leadership.
The CLC is one of Australia's largest land councils made up of 90 elected delegates from communities across the southern half of the Northern Territory.
The senator's release repeated claims made by the council's then-chairman Matthew Palmer, that Mr Turner had faced an unsuccessful no-confidence motion at a meeting of male council delegates.
On his second day giving evidence, Mr Turner said he believed the senator had echoed claims made by Mr Palmer without checking if they were accurate.
"I thought she would have checked it was factually correct, but she didn't," he said.
"I had no contact from Senator Price or her staff."
Mr Turner accused Senator Nampijinpa Price of "amplifying" false claims about his leadership to further her "political agenda".
In an affidavit from February this year, Mr Turner said he was "outraged by the fact that Senator Price was implying that I was in some way responsible for keeping Aboriginal people in poverty".
"It was devastating. It cut me...
TOKYO – False claims that Japan’s new prime minister has created a ministry for “mass deportations” have been widely spread online, as immigration misinformation swirls after a “Japanese first” pa...