Meaghan Scanlon ignites Gold Coast State poll campaign by targeting David Crisafulli
The state election campaign on the Gold Coast has been ignited with Labor’s Meaghan Scanlon launching an unprecedented personal attack on Opposition leader David Crisafulli.
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The State election campaign on the Gold Coast has been ignited with Labor’s Meaghan Scanlon launching an unprecedented personal attack on Opposition leader David Crisafulli.
The Housing Minister in State Parliament has followed up on a tirade by Treasurer Cameron Dick and other ministers about Mr Crisafulli’s previous role as a director of a failed company.
Ms Scanlon, who is on a 7.7 per cent margin, faces a tough battle to hold her Coast seat after Mr Crisafulli backed former television reporter Bianca Stone being parachuted in to the northern Coast electorate for the LNP.
The Bulletin in 2017 had first reported on how Mr Crisafulli had bailed out of the financially troubled Southern Edge Training before it went into liquidation.
An LNP source has described Labor using the parliamentary week to target the Opposition leader as “desperate stations” in the lead-up to the October poll.
Ms Scanlon in a speech to the House said: “If the member for Broadwater could not run a small training company properly then how can he run this state?”
She challenged the Broadwater MP to “come clean to Queenslanders on the full story” rather than “the lame explanation that he just gave in this House”.
Ms Scanlon in her speech asked a series of questions about the company’s business including allegations of a grant from the former Newman Government and links between directors and donations to Mr Crisafulli’s 2012 campaign.
Mr Crisafulli was director of the training agency before it went into liquidation in June 2016 owing more than $6 million to creditors.
Mr Crisafulli in 2017 said the company was profitable during his short tenure and he was a “large creditor”, having not been paid for his services.
An updated business report by the ABC earlier this month detailed how Mr Crisafulli had paid $200,000 in settling claims from liquidators.
Mr Scanlon told the Parliament: “If this was all above board, as he suggested to this House a number of years ago, why did he make $200,000 worth of payments including after he became opposition leader and after he made this statement to the House?
“Why did he keep $200,000 in hush money payments a secret? Why did he never update his register of interests with the associated liability, as every single member of this House is required to? These are all questions that the opposition leader must answer.”
Mr Crisafulli has questioned the timing of the government’s attack, adding that there had been no wrongdoing and he had “met my obligations” as a company director.
An LNP source said: “It’s desperate stations. Labor has become so desperate they are reheating decade old smear campaigns because they have nothing left to offer Queensland.
Under Labor, crime has got worse, housing has got worse, the cost of living and the health system are worse. The only thing they have left for the election in Queensland is desperate fear and smear.”
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