Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It has been over six months since the Australian Federal Police visited my electorate office to seek my assistance to deal with some allegations made, particularly against a colleague of ours, in relation to the use of members’ entitlements. As the House would know, I have been cleared of any wrongdoing. This is an opportunity to reflect on what has happened over the last six months. I have respected the process and cooperated fully with the Australian Federal Police. I am very grateful to the many people in the electorate of Moreton who have made it quite plain to me that they did not believe the nonsense they were reading in the media. Of course, I am pleased that their faith in me has been justified by the announcement that there is no problem with anything I have done.

Media commentary wrongly associated me with allegations regarding printing entitlement use. There has been no investigation of any use by me of my entitlements; rather, the matter the Australian Federal Police were inquiring into centred on the allegation of a phantom staffer created by a colleague who had worked in my office. I say quite plainly that I did allow a person to work in my office for several days as part of a training program to assist that person to gain skills. There is nothing wrong with that and the Australian Federal Police agree that there is nothing wrong with that. They met this so-called ‘phantom staffer’ 27 weeks ago. The extraordinary thing to most fair-minded people is that 27 weeks ago they should have cleared me of any wrongdoing, knowing that the allegation of a phantom staffer was simply wrong. 

People know that the officer in charge of the investigation, who in fact instigated the visits to the member for Bowman, the member for Bonner and my office, as well as that of Willprint, a printing company in Brisbane, is the estranged wife of the new Queensland Deputy Premier. Sharon Cowden is married to Paul Lucas, who is the new Deputy Premier of Queensland. This was reported in the Courier-Mail on 9 March, so there is nothing new in that allegation. That was the last gasp of anything brave from the Courier-Mail, which continued to report breathlessly the things that Peter Beattie wanted to report. Peter Beattie and the Australian Labor Party machine in Queensland have been up to their eyeballs in this whole matter, briefing the media. A couple of questions need to be answered. How did Premier Peter Beattie get a copy of the warrant that was only ever shown to people like me on the day the AFP visited? Within days of the visit to my office, Premier Peter Beattie is flying the warrant around in the house of parliament. I am not sure how that was done. Why is it that the Courier-Mail went deftly quiet in their coverage of my reprieve? The Courier-Mail of course has been dominated by the Labor Party media machine. So I have kept on with my job over the last six months but I believe it is important, as I work on things like Mains and Kessel’s roads, that the people know the truth about what happened to me this year.

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