Labor mud slinging a risky game

PREMIER Anna Bligh and her ministers have spoken a lot about accountability in high office in recent weeks. How refreshing.

Campbell Newman

PREMIER Anna Bligh and her ministers have spoken a lot about accountability in high office in recent weeks. How refreshing.

Along the way they tipped a few buckets on Campbell Newman, the man who would be premier.

This week the former Brisbane lord mayor was accused of being tardy or deliberately evasive in declaring his wife's financial affairs.

It was an orchestrated campaign challenge to Newman's authority and honesty. He was also forced to disclose payments from the LNP since leaving council.

Controversy began when Labor taunted Newman about his pay and questioned the involvement of his wife, Lisa, in an apartment development by a superannuation fund set up by her father, Frank Monsour.

The former Brisbane lord mayor denied concealing his wife's interests, saying he had met all disclosure requirements.

I can reveal Monsour lodged his development application before Newman was even elected to council. The project was hardly a state secret, at least to readers of this page.

In January last year I wrote: "Has Lisa Newman, wife of Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, turned property developer? Sort of. She is named in a trust set up by her dad, Frank Monsour, which is developing a ritzy $25 million apartment tower in Spring Hill.

In his online blurb Monsour, a maxillofacial surgeon, promised buyers at Mountview Residences ultimate luxury in a building inspired by French Baroque design. Units start at a sniffy $1.8 million. A spokesman for Can-do Campbell said the Lord Mayor informed the council CEO of his wife's involvement and distanced himself from the project."

Newman wrote to council CEO, Jude Munro, in May 2006. He said, in part: "I would like it placed on the record that neither myself or any member of my staff have ever discussed this application with council officers at any time in the past 26 months (since he became lord mayor).

"I also advise that in future I will excuse myself from any deliberations on the application should the need arise.

"Furthermore, my staff will also excuse themselves from any future discussions of this application."

Newman accused his opponents of mudslinging when the issue returned.

I suspect Labor will regret opening this particular can of worms. Accountability is a two-way street. Labor's attempts to blacken Newman's name may be a high-risk strategy, considering its own ethical shortcomings through the Bligh-Beattie era. By questioning Newman's integrity Bligh and her ministers inevitably invite comparisons.

I need only mention the last time former minister Gordon Nuttall addressed Parliament he turned up to do so in handcuffs.

In the past 15 years or so Labor members have been jailed for sex crimes and blackmail and several members have left Parliament under an integrity cloud.

Before the week ended Newman had returned fire, challenging Bligh and Labor leaders to make full disclosures about the ALP's secretive financial arm, Labor Holdings.

He and parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney want Cabinet ministers to reveal more than they do, including spouse assets and positions of influence.

Newman believes there is too much we simply do not know about Labor Holdings and its associated companies. He said there were growing suspicions in the community about conflicts of interest and deals done behind closed doors.

Labor Holdings provides summaries of investments but no detailed accounts. In the past decade it has donated more than $20 million to Labor Party election campaigns.

Newman points to obvious links between Cabinet, the directors of government-owned corporations and the directors of Labor Holdings.

ALP governments traditionally appoint union leaders as directors of government-owned corporations handling billions in public assets.

For instance, Labor Holdings chairman John Bird is an Ergon director. Bill Ludwig, Australian Workers' Union chief, is another Labor Holdings director. Ludwig is also on the boards of SunSuper and WorkCover. Ronald Monaghan, Queensland Council of Unions general secretary, is an Energex director and has previously been a director of Sunsuper and WorkCover. ALP state secretary Anthony Chisholm is a Labor Holdings director.

Newman said at a council meeting in March while still lord mayor that Labor Holdings was "the secretive organisation that doesn't declare anything".

"Labor Holdings owns property all across Brisbane and probably other places we don't know and yet they (Labor councillors) come in here and they don't declare these things.

"I have never heard a declaration of a conflict of interest or a MPI (Material Personal Interest). Oh, I think they'd better go and read the Act, madam chairman." He warned there were "severe penalties" for any Labor councillor breaching disclosure rules.

When he was LNP leader John Paul-Langbroek went even further. In August 2009 he told Parliament the Bligh Government was corrupt and could be bought. And he suggested improper links between Labor Holdings and the Government.

He said the ALP had "corruptly concealed" a $225,000 donation from a union. He added: "There are questions marks, too, about the board members of Labor Holdings ... that is making these large donations. The board members ... are also government board appointees to GOCs (government-owned corporations). It poses the question as to what information they have been able to find out.

"Do they then recommend that Labor Holdings use some of the information received to make investments in things that will then lead to more donations to the Labor Party?"

It was a question and it remains unanswered.