The Federal Court has been shown a video of a press conference during which the WA Premier referred to billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer as an "enemy" of WA.
Mr Palmer is suing Premier Mark McGowan in the Federal Court for defamation over comments made in 2020, while the Premier has launched a counter-claim, alleging Mr Palmer damaged his reputation.
Mr Palmer said he was brought into "hatred, ridicule and contempt" by the comments and has "suffered and continues to suffer loss and damage to his reputation and injury to his feelings".
A press conference from July 2020 was played in the court, in which Mr McGowan, answering reporters' questions about Mr Palmer's legal challenge to WA's hard border, said: "He's the enemy of the state. I think he's the enemy of Australia."
In another video of a press conference, in August 2020, Mr McGowan referred to what were believed to be Mr Palmer's intentions in travelling to WA.
"He wanted to come to Western Australia to promote hydroxychloroquine to the people as some sort of cure for COVID. All the evidence is not only is it not a cure, it's actually dangerous," Mr McGowan said at the time.
WA hard border challenge sparked war claim
In another video of a separate press conference, also in August 2020, the Premier said: "Mr Palmer is very selfish to pursue this High Court action. He uses money generated in Western Australia, through Western Australian mining projects, to try to bring down our borders and damage the health of West Australians."
Mr McGowan later said: "We're in a war with Clive Palmer. And it's a war we intend to win."
This statement was made on Mark McGowan's Facebook page in mid-August, 2020 after the Commonwealth, which had initially backed Mr Palmer in his hard border challenge, withdrew its support.
The post referred to legislation designed to prevent Mr Palmer from claiming potentially "around $30 billion" related to a long-running dispute over his Balmoral South mining proposal.
The massive iron ore project, which would have involved the construction of an open-cut iron ore mine in WA's Pilbara region, never came to fruition after failing to gain the necessary approvals from the previous Liberal government under Colin Barnett.
Mr McGowan's government subsequently passed special legislation designed to stop Mr Palmer from suing the government over the stalled project.
The Facebook post said Mr Palmer "decided to just make his profits by taking $12,000 from every man, woman and child in Western Australia".
It also said it would be "unthinkable" to allow a precedent that anyone could "bankrupt a state".
Mr Palmer's lawyer Peter Gray SC told the court his client had "experience of having harsh things said about him in the public square".
Nonetheless, Mr McGowan's comments had had a "serious impact" on Mr Palmer and those around him, Mr Gray said.
McGowan 'hurt and embarrassed'
The Premier is counter-suing Mr Palmer, claiming that the billionaire damaged Mr McGowan's reputation in various statements by claiming he lied on several occasions, and that he abused the parliamentary system.
Mr McGowan said it had been suggested that he had engaged in "criminal acts" in having certain laws passed.
The Premier said he had suffered "hurt and embarrassment".
The court was shown video recording and played a radio interview in which Mr Palmer made statements about the Premier.
In his filings to the court, Mr McGowan said Mr Palmer's words were understood to mean that he lied to the people of WA, but he had been acting on the advice of the Chief Medical Officer in closing the borders.
He said Mr Palmer suggested he lied when he said the health of the people of WA would be "threatened" if the borders didn't stay closed.
In further claims, Mr McGowan said Mr Palmer had suggested he lied about the justification for imposing travel bans, had acted corruptly by seeking immunity from criminal acts, was open to accepting bribes from Chinese interests, and that he had abused the parliamentary system.
'Criminal acts by government': Palmer
Addressing the media in August 2020, Mr Palmer spoke about legislation passed in WA in relation to his mining proposal.
"You may well ask, what are the criminal acts that the government wants to do that they need an exemption from criminal liability," the businessman said.
In a radio interview from August 2020, which was played in the court, Mr Palmer referred to state agreements being "destroyed" and sovereign risk being "opened up".
Justice Michael Lee told the court he would have to consider the context in which Mr McGowan's statements were made, accepting it was "highly charged rhetoric".
Mr Gray argued that to be called an enemy of the state was a "powerful, savage indictment of a person".
However, Justice Lee said he did not think he could find that Mr Palmer was being called a "traitor".
Apology not enough: Palmer
Outside court, Mr Palmer was asked if he would be satisfied if Mr McGowan were to apologise now, or whether he wanted to take it "all the way".
"No I think you know, you need to have these things resolved because they're serious issues," he responded.
He said people should not be accused of being "disloyal to their country."
"There needs to be boundaries established as to what you can and what you can't do," Mr Palmer told journalists.
He said the defamation case had nothing to do with his United Australia Party.
The hearing continues.
