Jacinta Price seeks to crowdfund $320,000 by month’s end to fight defamation suit

Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is seeking to raise $320,000 from her supporters by the end of the month to fund her legal defence in an upcoming defamation case in the Federal Court.

Price started a crowdfunding campaign this month and previously warned she faced possible bankruptcy and expulsion from the Senate after she was sued by the head of the Northern Territory’s Central Land Council.

In an email sent to her mailing list on Tuesday – with the subject line “They’d love me silent” – the senator asked supporters to donate to her legal costs ahead of the trial in October.

“Some would love nothing more than to see me lose this case,” Price wrote.

“I was elected to speak for those who have no voice. But defending that choice will take enormous resources. Legal fees for a Federal Court trial are staggering. To have a fighting chance, I must raise $320,000 by the end of August.

“Your gift today will go directly to my legal defence to make sure our voice is never silenced. And remember, any donation over $300 will be permanently and publicly recorded in the Senate as a personal gift to me.

“It means your name will always be remembered as one of the Australians who stood by me when it mattered most.”

She claimed “hundreds of Australians” had already donated to her defence.

Price was one of the Coalition’s most powerful fundraisers in the lead-up to the May election, commanding up to $10,000 a head for a private dinner. Her political backers include former prime minister Tony Abbott and mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

The senator is being sued in the Federal Court over a press release she sent last July about the Central Land Council, in which she claimed that a vote of no confidence had been moved against its chief executive, Les Turner.

“A majority of Central Land Council members showed their support for the dismissal of the CEO due to unprofessional conduct,” the release said.

Turner’s defamation suit, launched last September, alleges he has been “seriously injured in his character and in his personal and professional reputation” by suggestions that he was unfit to serve as chief executive and had lost the support of his members.

The claim describes Price’s conduct as “improper, unjustified or lacking in bona fides” and says she failed to check the accuracy of her claims before issuing the press release.

Price has dropped her truth and honest opinion defences and will be solely relying on the defence of qualified privilege, which protects people who act reasonably in conveying information.

In a separate email sent last week, Price claimed the media release was “published in good faith, because I was elected to raise the issues that matter to you and to speak for those who have no voice”.

“If they win, they could bankrupt me. And that means I would lose my seat in the Senate – and your voice in Parliament would fall silent. I cannot let that happen.”

Under section 44 of the Australian Constitution, members who are undischarged bankrupts or insolvent are ineligible to sit in parliament.

The senator’s fundraising page says any donations will go straight into a legal defence fund, not to Price personally or a political party. Once the matter is finalised, it says any excess funds will be provided to an Australian not-for-profit organisation.

A spokesman for Price said the charity would be determined at the end of the trial. “⁠All funds raised are received and held by an independent third party, at arm’s length from the senator and transferred directly to her lawyers’ trust account,” he said.

“At no point do funds pass through an account over which the senator has control. These arrangements were advised to the president of the Senate before the donations website went live.

“Contributions that meet or exceed the relevant thresholds will be declared on the Register of Senators’ Interests.”

Turner declined to comment.

It’s not the first time an Australian politician has sought donations to cover legal fees.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young attracted hundreds of donations over $300 when she sued then-Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm for defamation in 2018 over suggestions she was a hypocrite and prejudiced against men. Leyonhjelm launched his own donation drive in response, but lost the case.

In 2023, the Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi turned to crowdfunding to launch a successful racial discrimination suit against One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.

Former Coalition attorney-general Christian Porter relied on a mystery donor to a blind trust when he sued the ABC in 2021 over an online article that he said accused him of a historical rape. Porter has always denied the allegation and the case was settled out of court.

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