West Australian Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti described a defamation case in which she was compelled to testify as “bizarre” following her appearance in the Supreme Court on Friday. The legal action, initiated by Perth businessman Greg Poland, targets Nine Entertainment’s WAtoday website over two articles published based on a covert recording from 2019.

The recording captured a conversation between Poland, then deputy chairman of the Peel Development Commission, and senior official Aaron Grainger at a Subiaco hotel. In the audio, Poland proposed a deal to dispose of contaminated soil from Western Australia’s Metronet project by dumping it on Grainger’s land in the Peel region. In exchange, Poland suggested Grainger would receive rights to operate a sand mine at Myalup. Poland also boasted of his connections to Saffioti during the meeting, telling Grainger that “Rita will be your friend” if he could assist in resolving the government’s disposal issue involving allegedly “toxic” soil.

During her testimony, Saffioti downplayed Poland’s influence on her, asserting that he had “zero” impact and that they had limited interactions. She further stated that her office had already ruled out the proposal to transport contaminated soil to the Peel region months before the 2019 meeting due to the high costs involved. Saffioti noted that the levels of PFAS contamination in the soil were lower than those found in many nearby areas and that the state had resolved the issue by diluting the soil into materials used in other construction projects.

Speaking outside court, Saffioti expressed frustration with the proceedings, calling the case “bizarre” and lamenting the extensive resources consumed by the seven-year-old matter. “Pub discussions being brought into these types of situations is just, to me, not something we should be wasting our court time on,” she said, though she declined to comment further on the evidence presented.

The case also involves testimony from several other current and former members of parliament. On Thursday, federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, named as a defendant, admitted to leaking a copy of the recording to Nathan Horridge, a journalist at WAtoday at the time. Hastie, however, denied promising Grainger that he would withhold the recording from others.