Mining magnate Clive Palmer has told a defamation trial in the Federal Court he believed WA Premier Mark McGowan could kill him without being prosecuted.
Mr Palmer has been giving evidence in his defamation case against the Premier over comments made in 2020.
Mr McGowan is countersuing with his own claims against the Queensland businessman.
One of the key issues in August 2020 was legislation preventing Mr Palmer from claiming billions of dollars in compensation over a WA mining proposal.
In an ABC interview in August 2020, Mr Palmer said immunity provisions in the legislation meant the Premier could "murder, shoot you, raid your house".
In court this morning, Mr McGowan's lawyer Bret Walker SC asked him whether he believed the Premier could kill him.
"I believed he could do that under the provisions of the act," he said.
He likened it to James Bond's "licence to kill", in that there wasn't a limitation in "what they may do in breaching the criminal law".
Mr Walker asked Mr Palmer if he thought the Premier could escape criminal responsibility for killing someone.
"That's the essence of it," Mr Palmer replied.
Mr Walker asked further if he thought the legislation authorised the killing of anyone.
"Not authorised, but allowed for it to happen," Mr Palmer said.
Mr Walker put it to him that this would be an "outrageous and absurd effect" of the legislation, to which Mr Palmer responded: "I just reject it."
Palmer denies lying during testimony
Mr Palmer told the court he could not remember advertisements that attacked the McGowan government and made several accusations about the Premier.
"At that time it was a bit of a blur," he said, asserting that he did not draw them up and that the advertisements were on behalf of a company, not him personally.
During the exchange about the advertisements, Mr Walker accused Mr Palmer of "just playing with words" and said it was "absurd" to suggest the advertisements did not represent his views.
He also accused Mr Palmer of lying during his testimony, something he rejected.
Mr Palmer did admit his company was potentially entitled to more than $27 billion in compensation as a result of arbitration over the mining proposal, something he said should have been treated confidentially.
He said this was determined by "independent experts" and was not quite as high as the $30 billion that was being stated by the WA government in 2020.
Mr Walker took Mr Palmer to task about his suggestions the Premier had lied in relation to COVID-19 medical advice and WA's hard border.
He also accused the businessman of not answering questions when Mr Palmer said he could not recall details.
'They could do anything'
Earlier, Mr Palmer said he "ended up vomiting" when he learned about the legislation to stop him from claiming compensation, telling the court he was frightened about what might happen.
He compared the WA government to Nazi Germany and became emotional as he described how he believed the safety of himself and his family had come under threat.
"They could do anything", Mr Palmer said.
Justice Michael Lee asked Mr Palmer if he was saying, after reading the WA legislation, whether he had "genuine fear for your physical safety".
Mr Palmer said yes, for him and his family and employees.
He told the court he felt that the WA government was taking the action via legislation because it had lost arbitration in relation to the mining proposal and it "wanted to get me".
"I'm really stuffed," he said he felt at the time.
I was equated to a drug dealer: Palmer
Mr Palmer also told the court he believed comments by Mr McGowan likened him to a drug dealer.
In 2020, Mr McGowan said Mr Palmer wanted to come to WA to promote hydroxychloroquine, something he said was "dangerous".
Mr Palmer has told the court it was "gutter politics" and felt he was being made "equivalent to a drug dealer".
He said he was not promoting anything and he was instead responding to a national crisis, saying hydroxychloroquine was the "only option to save the country".
He asserted he had been used as a "scapegoat" in an "ongoing campaign to target me for political reasons".
'Enemy of state' comment at centre of trial
Mr Palmer is suing Mr McGowan over comments the Premier made in 2020 that he claims brought him into "hatred, ridicule and contempt" and caused him to suffer "loss and damage to his reputation and injury to his feelings".
Mr McGowan referred to the Queensland businessman as the "enemy of the state", said he wanted to come to WA to promote hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, and was using money generated in the state to bring down the border and damage the health of West Australians.
In a post on Mr McGowan's Facebook page, Mr Palmer was claimed to "make his profits by taking $12,000 from every man, woman and child", potentially causing the state to go bankrupt.
The post referred to legislation designed to prevent Mr Palmer from claiming potentially "around $30 billion" over a long-running dispute involving his Balmoral South mining proposal.
Mr Palmer believes the comments suggested he was a traitor to Australia, intended to harm the people of WA, intended to "steal" money from everyone in the state and was prepared to bankrupt WA.
Mr McGowan is counter-suing, claiming the billionaire damaged his reputation by saying he lied and that he abused the parliamentary system.
Excerpts from press conferences held by the Premier have been played to the court, followed by video and audio recordings of media statements and interviews involving Mr Palmer, showing the war of words between the billionaire and Mr McGowan.
Justice Michael Lee has said he needed to consider the context in which the statements were made – at a time when legal battles, including Mr Palmer's challenge to the hard border, were underway or afoot.
