Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should have verified claims about the head of an Aboriginal land council before publicly harming his reputation, a defamation trial has heard.

Central Land Council chief executive Lesley Turner has brought federal court proceedings, alleging the senator defamed him through a July 2024 press release.

That release falsely said there had been a no-confidence motion against him by council delegates, he said.

Nampijinpa Price had given weight to the claim by repeating it publicly, Alice Springs-based health official Dr John Boffa told a Darwin court on Tuesday after being called as a witness by Turner’s legal team.

“A senator of the Crown can’t just parrot what someone else has said without thinking about it and trying to verify it independently,

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