Emotional mayor defends his wife

AN emotional Campbell Newman has defended his wife and his right to privacy amid mounting pressure to disclose their financial interests.

AN emotional Campbell Newman has defended his wife and his right to privacy amid mounting pressure to disclose their financial interests.

The LNP leader this morning again refused to release an updated register of his pecuniary interests, saying it was "private business".

But he said the LNP was paying him less than backbenchers such as Kate Jones, his political rival in the state seat of Ashgrove.

``At the end of the day I have released all my personal private information; people don't need to know how much I'm getting given that the LNP are paying for it,'' he said.

Mr Newman also became emotional while defending his wife, Lisa's role in setting up a disaster recovery business that touted for Government business days after the Brisbane floods.

Mr Newman said that, as the eldest daughter, Mrs Newman had been involved in her family's financial affairs since the 1980s because her mother had schizophrenia.

``I feel it's an outrage that because her father has leaned on her to be involved in his personal business interests, that Andrew Fraser should continue to try to smear her, him, my brother-in-law and myself in this way,'' he said.

He insisted neither he nor his wife had any financial interest in the company, headed by Mrs Newman's brother Seb Monsour.

But Treasurer Andrew Fraser used the revelations to apply more pressure on Mr Newman to publicly update his financial interests, as well as his wife's, as MPs are required to do.

``He has a parliamentary pass, he works from a taxpayer-funded building, he wants to operate in the parliament but he doesn't want to play by the rules of the parliament,'' Mr Fraser said.