The former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who once advised the Rineharts to keep their family problems “out of public view”, won’t have to provide documentary evidence in a legal battle over a multibillion-dollar family trust.

Bianca Rinehart, who was granted control of the trust in 2015, is alleging in the New South Wales supreme court that her mother, Gina, withheld up to $500m worth of dividend payments owed to the trust by her company Hancock Prospecting.

But Gina Rinehart’s eldest daughter’s attempt to subpoena Joyce before an August court hearing was rebuffed by Justice Julie Ward in a judgment released on Tuesday.

Bianca Rinehart issued subpoenas seeking documents to explain the circumstances of donations to Joyce, the Institute of Public Affairs and CEF Pty Ltd.

Gina Rinehart presented a $40,000 prize to Joyce at a national agriculture event in November 2017 which he subsequently returned.

Ward said it seemed “no more than speculation to suggest that documents in the hands of subpoena recipients” would shed light on Hancock Prospecting’s purpose in making the payments or donations.

Among the documents sought by Bianca Rinehart were those relating to an email Joyce sent to her sister, Hope Welker, in September 2011.

Ward said the email “appears to offer advice by Joyce to Welker to get ‘family problems back in-house and out of public view’.”

The judge granted Gina Rinehart’s application to set aside Joyce’s subpoena and partly set aside subpoenas issued to the institute and CEF.