Staffer told not to take notes during ‘unorthodox’ meeting about toxic soil

A Perth court has heard a government commission staffer had “apprehensions” ahead of a meeting at the heart of a long-running defamation spat, during which she was asked to stop taking notes.

Lisa Taylor was employed as a commercial officer for the Peel Development Commission, and attended a meeting at the Subiaco Hotel with the commission’s Deputy Chairman Greg Poland.

At that meeting, Poland coached landowner Aaron Grainger, on how to “solve a political headache” for the state government, by facilitating the removal of millions of tonnes of allegedly contaminated soil from an airport development.

Poland pushed the idea of a land swap, which would allow Grainger to take ownership of a valuable sand-mining site south of Perth in exchange for giving the government a place to dump the allegedly contaminated soil.

That meeting was recorded without Poland or Taylor’s knowledge and sent to journalists at this masthead, who published two stories which formed the basis for the defamation case brought about by Poland.

In court on Friday, Taylor said she had been asked to set up the meeting between Poland and Grainger by the Commission’s chairman Andrew Ward, but that it was a “strange” meeting, and it had “felt off”.

She also said she was provided with no details leading up to the meeting, and did not feel prepared when she attended.

Earlier in the trial, Nine’s lawyer Matthew Lewis, SC, questioned Poland on why he had ordered Taylor to stop taking notes at the meeting, and said the way he had done so was deliberately “drawn out and theatrical”.

Poland argued he had not ordered her, he had simply asked her not to, and denied that Taylor would have felt forced to do so because he was her superior, instead stating that Ward was the person in charge.

Taylor had only recently commenced her role with the Peel Development Commission before the meeting in January 2019.

“I had apprehensions leading up to the meeting,” Taylor said.

“No one in the Peel Development Commission wanted to deal with Aaron, they were all quite cautious with dealing with him.”

Taylor said following the meeting, she was asked to follow up with Grainger and get him to write a proposal that the Commission could send through for approvals.

“I remember Aaron continued to call me and I just felt really uncomfortable about the whole thing,” she said.

In the recording, which was aired in court on Wednesday, Poland can be heard saying: “Listen, um, you shouldn’t be making notes of this.”

At the end of the meeting, Poland tells Taylor he’s glad she didn’t take notes and that “this is an unorthodox conversation”.

“Your instinct was to take notes wasn’t it?” Lewis asked Taylor in court on Friday.

“Yes because half the time I don’t know what they were talking about,” Taylor responded before saying she possibly intended to send those notes back to the commission.

Defence to commence its case next week

The first week of the defamation trial focused on the plaintiffs, but next week it will be the defendants’ turn to take the stand.

Possible witnesses to be called include federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and former WA Liberal Leader Zak Kirkup, who are named as defendants over disseminating the recording.

Former Transport Minister and now Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti and former Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan are also on the list of possible witnesses.

In the recording, Poland can be heard discussing the latter two politicians, suggesting that “they will come straight to you once you’ve done one favour”.

“Once you’ve done one favour, they’ll ring you and they’ll steamroll anything through,” he tells Grainger.

“Rita will just push it through. Alannah and Rita will just steamroll it. They’ll just steamroll it.

“If we could pull this off, whatever you want, Rita would be your friend.”

Documents held by the offices of both ministers have been subpoenaed in this case, but many have not been tendered due to being confidential.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.