cairns(a)parliament.aid.qov.au www.robpvne.com.au AUG 201? Electorate Office 46 - 50 Spence Street Cairns OLD 4870 Rob Pyne MP PO Box 5241 Cairns QLD 4870 Member for Cairns Ph. 07 4229 0110 Fax. 07 4229 0119 24 August 201 / Queensland Legislative Assembly Hon. Peter XK’cllington Speaker o f The House ® <0OQT2017 “ B y l* w D CJeorgc Street MP; BRISBANH QLD 4002 Clerk's Signature: Deal- Mr. Speaker, RE: Complaint that the Deputj' Premier Mislead House I am writing to vou to make a formal complaint against the Deputv Premier Hon Jackie Trad for misleading the house wliicii is an act of contempt as defined under Standing Order 266(2) and I ask that vou refer this matter to the Ethics Committee along with the substantive supportix e evidence. E vid enced by Hansard and other (most reference material attached). 1. On 1.5''' October 2015 and ,5"' December 2015 the Hon. [A TR /\D (South Brisbane — ,\I.P) (Deputv Premier, Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Trade) deliberately and intenticjnallv Mislead Parliament in two Ministerial Statements. In the simplest o f terms, this is evidenced b\' the contradiction between her Ministerial Statements and the later letter from the Deputv Premier dated 7 April 2016. .Additionally; 2. The 1 Ion JA Trad, the office of Dcputx Premier and spokespersons for her office and department have further contributed to dissemination of misleading and deceptive materials including but not limited to correspondence & media statements issued bv Deputv Premiers office. The informatic>n provided in Ministerial Statement and other means whether directlv provided by the Deputy Premier, her office or departmental staff has reinforced her misleading Ministerial Statements of both 15''’ October and .V'' December 2015. The Deputy Premier has been directly tjuoted by third party organisations including LGA(^. The content of these qu<.)tes are inaccurate and/or untnithful and further demonstrate the deliberate and systemic intent to mislead the Parliament and others. 5. The Minister must take responsibility for the content ol her Ministerial Statement irrespective of whether she initiated the statement or failed tC) ask pri.ibing questions o f her officials prior to delivering it as a Ministerial Statement. 4. The misleading statements are clearly evident from the Deputv Premiers letters to me dated 15 April 2016 and 15 1‘ebruarv 2016 respectively. 5. Attached to this letter are the statements from Hansard, the letters mentioned above and a file in chronological order demonstrating that the Ministerial Statements were misleading and the .Ministers Otfiee (and the Department) were invob ed in disseminating misinformation because the complaints were still L in d e r rc'.'icw a n d IK VESTKj \T]( in r'cbniar', 2016 a n d t h is is e v id e n c e d in b o t l i the m e e t in g notes trom hS'" F e h r u a n ' 21)16 a n d th e Depul\ Premiers letter o t " ? '’ /\pril 2ill6. I >ineercl\ ree|iiest that '/oLi pive this consideration and reter this to the ethics conmiiuee because tlic attached documents when considered in chronological order demonstrate that the l ion jackie J'rad Itnowingh and deliberatelt misleafl the house in both ( )ctobc r and Ideccmber 2l)J 5. Regards, Rob Pyne M ? Member for Cairns 2272 Ministerial Statements 15 Oct 2015 MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS Local Government Hon. JA TRAD (South Brisbane—ALP) (Deputy Premier, Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning and Minister for Trade) (11.31 am); The Local Government Act 2009 provides a framework for dealing with complaints about the conduct of individual councillors as well as for the intervention by the state in certain circumstances. Yesterday the member for Cairns provided my office with a range of documents pertaining to local government in Queensland, and I understand these same documents were subsequently tabled in the House yesterday afternoon. My office immediately referred this material to my department for consideration and assessment.. My department has undertaken an initial review of this material. Based on this initial review, they have not found any basis to substantiate the claims that local government in Queensland is broken or that a systemic judicial inquiry is needed. More specifically, I can advise the House there are two complainants who have raised a series of allegations regarding Cairns Regional Council related to conflicts of interest, the letting of contracts and breaches of the EPA—the Environmental Protection Act—and this documentation included a reasonable level of detail and particulars. These will be immediately referred back to my department and back to the CEO of Cairns Regional Council for preliminary assessment as provided for under the Local Government Act 2009. Additionally, a significant volume of material has also been provided in relation to the Tablelands Regional Council. I am advised that some of the claims made in this material may be referred to the CCC given the nature of the allegations. I am also advised that the vast majority of the material, however, is very difficult to classify in a short period of time as it is a mix of broad allegations of breaches of particular sections of the act, citing comments by councillors and staff in council meetings, media articles and what appears to be ‘reports’ prepared by complainants. Much of the material cannot be attributed to an individual as these do hot have any author or complainant details. Nonetheless, I have instructed my department to review all the material thoroughly and provide advice to me once this has occurred. I will update the House in due course once I have received detailed advice from my department. HANSARD - CUT 2015.12.03 MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS Local Government Administration Hon. JA TRAD (South Brisbane—ALP) (Deputy Premier, Minister for Transport, Minister for Infrastructure. Local Governrnent and Planning and Minister for Trade) (7.36 pm): On 14 October, the member for Cairns provided my office with a range of documents pertaining to local government in Queensland, v/ith similar documents subsequently tabled in the House. As I advised parliament on 15 October, my office immediately referred this material to my department for consideration and assessment. My department provided an initial review of these claims and at that time advised me that they had not found any basis to substantiate the call for a judicial inquiry that accompanied the release of this material. The Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning has now completed a full review of the material provided in October. Based on this review, my department is of the opinion that the issues raised amount to localised matters specific to each of the local governments in question and that it does not provide any cogent evidence of systemic problems with the local government system that would justify an inquiry into local government, as called for by the member for Cairns. My department’s review of the material has identified that two local matters relating to potential conflicts of interest should be referred to the CEO of the Cairns Regional Council for preliminary assessment under the Local Government Act, and I can ^ advise that this has now occurred. In relation to the remaining claims in the October 'V material, my department found that the matters had already been investigated by the - r relevant authority, or that maUers could not be substantiated based on the limited \ details provided, or that the claims were oTa general nature and did not specify ¥nv actionable^ . #-x ^ ^ L-^ I ^material, + or that the issues raised reflected+ an individual's disagreement^ .»»« v>n4 - ! • with the decision of the local government. J Beyond the two potential conflict of interest matters raised above, I am advised that it is not considered necessary to take any further action in respect of any of the __ allegations made by the member for Cairns in October. I have today written to the member for Cairns advising him of these findings. To remove any doubt, my director- general has also today written to the Ombudsman asking he undertake an expeditious review of the department’s actions in relation to this matter. In my correspondence to the member for Cairns, I have also taken the opportunity to remind him of the most appropriate method by which affected parties should seek remedies to any issues that they think constitute a dispute with local government. For the benefit of all members, local government complaints should be dealt with as follows: if a person has a complaint about a decision of local government or the service the local government provides, they should contact their local government's customer service area, call centre or inquiry counter which may be able to address their concern. If this does not resolve the matter, it is recommended that they write to the local government and make an official complaint. HANSARD - cut f 4*^ December 2015 Member for Cairns Rob Pyne - PERSONAL EXPLINATION. Mr SPEAKER: Before I ca!l the Leader of the House, I am informed that the member for Cairns wanted to make a personal explanation. Bearing in mind that this is the last sitting this year, I will allow the memberfor Cairns to make a personal explanation. PERSONAL EXPLANATION Crime and Corruption Commission, Complaints by Local Government M r PYNE (Cairns—ALP) (9,57 am): I would like to make a personal explanation in relation to comments made by the Deputy Premier last night in relation to documents that I have tabled in this House. I have an intimate knowledge of the local government complaints process, having served as a local government councillor for seven years.