By Daniel Hurst
Premier Anna Bligh has denied walking away from her “guarantee” not to target members of Campbell Newman's family, despite a series of hard-hitting Labor advertisements featuring the LNP leader's wife and mentioning his brother-in-law.
Ms Bligh defended the attack advertisements during an interview with brisbanetimes.com.au amid an increasingly bruising election campaign battle over the television airwaves, saying questions about the family companies were directed to Mr Newman, not his wife Lisa or brother-in-law Seb Monsour.
Under scrutiny ... Campbell Newman and wife Lisa.Credit: Harrison Saragossi
- Watch Premier Anna Bligh's full interview with brisbanetimes.com.au later today.
The Premier's comments follow Mr Newman's remarks to The Sunday Mail last weekend that Ms Bligh was a “disgraceful individual” whose party had dragged the Newman and Monsour families “through hell and back” through their negative campaigning.
Mr Newman has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and denounced Labor “sleaze and innuendo”.
Premier Anna Bligh.Credit: Harrison Saragossi
In July last year Ms Bligh told reporters: “I can give this guarantee: I won't be at any stage insulting or criticising any member of Mr Newman's family. I think that no matter what your politics are, families are precious, and I certainly regard them as off-limits.”
Asked why she had changed her mind, Ms Bligh insisted she had not retreated from her pledge.
“I haven't changed my mind,” she told brisbanetimes.com.au this week.
“In this campaign what we've done is target some very important questions to Mr Newman. I haven't asked these questions of his family, I've asked them of Campbell Newman himself and he refuses to answer them.
“It's Mr Newman who has a very complex web of family companies, and Mr Newman whose council has made decisions that benefit those companies, and Mr Newman who won't give us any answers on why he's done that.”
Labor's ads are centred on the theme “Campbell's web” and the first one that aired began with the words: “Newman's wife Lisa and brother Seb are friends with Liam Smith. They own a company together. With Campbell's father in law, they form another company to bid for millions from flood recovery funds.”
Another advertisement featured slow-motion footage of Mrs Newman staring adoringly at her husband at the end.
A Labor flyer distributed in Ashgrove reportedly questioned the LNP leader's commitment to the key seat by highlighting a quote by Mr Newman that “Lisa will be doing a lot of the work out there”.
I haven't asked these questions of his family, I've asked them of Campbell Newman himself.
A photo of Mr and Mrs Newman appeared under the line: “Campbell is only interested in looking after one family. And it's not yours.”
When pressed to acknowledge that Mrs Newman and her family had been brought into the political fray at the centre of the election ads, Ms Bligh said the easiest way for Mr Newman to end the matter was to answer Labor's questions.
But LNP campaign spokesman Tim Nicholls said Ms Bligh's claim to only be targeting Mr Newman and not his family members lacked credibility.
“I think that she's just using weasel words yet again to avoid being held accountable and everyone understands that she has condoned the disgraceful attack personal attacks against Campbell Newman's family,” he said.
“Lisa's in the ads, Lisa's brother's in the ads, Lisa's father's in the ads. For someone who says families are precious she is completely breaking her guarantee.”
Mr Newman has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing but last weekend vowed to relinquish any family business interests within 90 days of winning office to put the matter beyond doubt. He has dismissed the Labor campaign as baseless “sleaze and innuendo”.
On Tuesday, Ms Bligh said she did not have adequate evidence to refer to the Crime and Misconduct Commission issues with a Woolloongabba development approval that came after a developer donated tens of thousands of dollars through separate companies to Mr Newman's council election campaign fund when he was lord mayor.
“Right now all I have is questions, I don't have enough answers from Mr Newman or enough material,” she told reporters.
But yesterday the CMC confirmed it was assessing the Woolloongabba matter to consider whether there had been any official misconduct. It is yet to launch a formal investigation.
Mr Newman said he was relaxed about the potential investigation, arguing he had not been involved in anything illegal or improper.
Ms Bligh defended the Labor focus on such issues, saying Mr Newman had initially avoided declaring his pecuniary interests in the State Parliament format, and was reluctant to answer media questions.
“This is all of Mr Newman's making,” she told brisbanetimes.com.au.
“He could have sold his interests in these companies many years ago.”
Ms Bligh insisted not all Labor ads were negative attacks on Mr Newman.
She said no ads about Mr Newman aired in the first nine days of the campaign, and early in the piece Labor ran ads about government's “very strong” record in the large recovery and reconstruction effort after the natural disasters.
“You'll see over the next few days what we'll be doing,” she said when asked about the possibility of positive Labor ads.
The LNP has also stepped up its attack ads in the past week, accusing Ms Bligh of lying to voters over asset sales and failing to have a plan for the future.
Mr Nicholls said the difference was the LNP ads focused on the government's record and administrative performance and did not target any members of Ms Bligh's family.
He said he believed voters were beginning to see through the Labor attack advertisements.
In the hot seat: Premier Anna Bligh opens up about the looming election, reveals what she wishes had happened differently during the past three years, and forcefully confronts claims she lied before the last election. Ms Bligh's full video interview with Daniel Hurst will be posted on brisbanetimes.com.au later today.