Perth developer tells defamation trial WA government called on him to solve ‘headache’
A Perth property developer has told the WA Supreme Court the state government has called on him to help remove soil from a major infrastructure project, appearing on the second day of a more than seven-year-old libel trial.
Strzelecki Group president Greg Poland and his daughter Jennifer Poland, who is also the company’s chief executive, have given evidence about allegations this imprint published in 2019 about their role in trying to broker a deal with the provincial government to dump millions of tonnes of “toxic soil” from the Forrestfield Airport site in the Peel region.
A second article, published a day later and also included in the minutes, claimed Mr Poland had claimed the attempt to increase WA’s lobster catch was his plan, but the government had “failed” to do so.
The articles were based on secret recordings taken without Mr. Poland’s consent at a meeting at the Subiaco Hotel that Mr. Poland attended as part of his role as vice-chairman of the Peel Development Commission but claimed was a private meeting.
One of Mr. Poland’s main claims was that the soil was not toxic and should not be labeled as such; His lawyer, Martin Bennett, told the court on Monday that a public document and a background memo from then-fisheries minister Dave Kelly’s office both supported the claim that the soil was not toxic.
On Tuesday’s stand, Mr. Poland said he had been told the cost of moving soil from the Forrestfield Airport site could cost up to $300 million, and that was a headache the state government wanted him to help solve.
“There were two million tons at the airport and they wanted them gone,” he said.
In recordings of the meeting, Mr Poland is heard telling a local business owner he could buy a parcel of land in Myalup without going out to tender if they facilitated the dumping of “two to eight tonnes” of soil from Forrestfield Airport onto his land in Waroona.
All he was trying to do was get something in writing that the government could work with, Mr. Poland told the court on Tuesday.
Bennett asked whether Mr. Poland knew the meeting was being recorded and whether he would consent to it being recorded if asked, to which he replied: “No.”
“Why would I? It was a private meeting,” he said.
Mr Poland said he needed to work with government ministers and did not want them to read or see comments “saying it was useless nonsense” at an official meeting.
Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Poland’s daughter, Jennifer Poland, was questioned about why her father wanted note-taking to stop during the meeting.
He said he consulted the Chatham House Rules because it would give his opinion on which minister would do a good job and which ministries would do a good job.
“He didn’t want those comments to come back to ministers because he had to work with them,” Ms Poland said.
After a journalist took questions based on meeting transcripts, Mr Poland told the court he had spoken to the then regional development minister, Alannah MacTiernan, about the allegations.
“If this is politics, they [journalists] Mr. Poland said MacTiernan told him.
“He said to me, ‘I have already accepted your resignation.’ [from the Peel Development Commission]that stops it’.
Discussing the second published story, Mr Poland told the court that he had mentioned the idea of licensing boats to catch lobster for the internal market at a roundtable with Labor’s then prime minister, Mark McGowan, and other ministers, and they told him they loved the idea.
Mr Poland claimed that then fisheries minister Kelly also supported the proposal.
The state government later released the report WA’s Western Rock Lobster Plan – Industry growth plan to create jobs.
“I didn’t like the way they took the idea and changed it, so the licenses ended up with the government,” Mr Poland told the court.
But he said the government reached out to him and asked for a public statement of support, which he provided.
Mr Poland was then cross-examined by Nine’s lawyer, Matthew Lewis, who asked him if he would accept that the Peel region was valued for its ecological importance.
“If they cared that much, they wouldn’t allow this level of mining and destruction there,” Mr. Poland replied.
Asked how many times he had met with the landowner with whom he had discussed the deal, Mr. Poland said the Peel Development Commission chairman was largely concerned with him and the plans for transferring the sand.
Developer ‘angry’ at journalists’ questions
Ms Poland said her father was “very angry” when he first received questions from journalists and allegedly said: “All I’m trying to do is help.”
He said after the first article was published that his father could not believe it was happening or why the ministers quoted in the article were “saying they had it”.
“He said, ‘They know me, they know my deal,'” Ms. Poland recalled.
“It was destroyed because of him.”
Ms. Poland reached out to Bennett after her father received questions from that imprint, and the attorney sent a letter to reporters before both stories were published.
Ms Poland was questioned by Nine’s lawyer, Martin Goldblatt, about these letters and her account of events.
In a letter to journalists from Bennett on behalf of the Poles, the soil was classified as “toxic” or “polluted” several times.
However, Ms Poland argued that she was “contaminated” on different levels when asked why she approved the letter if she believed it was false.
He also argued that many of the direct quotes from the Subiaco Hotel recording were out of context and that his father often spoke in a certain way due to his dyslexia.
The hearing continues and Mr. Poland is expected to return to the stand tomorrow.
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Holly Thompson is a journalist at WAtoday specializing in education and the environment.Connect with: X or email.
