Jackie Trad, Annastacia Palaszcuk likely to face Qld Parliamentary Ethics Committee
Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad are likely to be called before the Queensland Parliamentary Ethics Committee to explain their role in the taxpayer-funded political cover-up exposed in a Crime and Corruption Commission report, writes Des Houghton
Des Houghton
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Annastacia Palaszczuk and Jackie Trad are likely to be called before the Queensland Parliamentary Ethics Committee to explain their role in the taxpayer-funded political cover-up exposed in a Crime and Corruption Commission report.
LNP MPs, including at least one Cabinet minister, are pressing Premier David Crisafulli to write to the Speaker, Pat Weir, urging him to refer Trad to the Ethics Committee for allegedly misleading Parliament.
Trad may even be summoned to the Bar of Parliament where she would have the opportunity to explain publicly a CCC finding that she “inappropriately interfered” with an independent recruitment panel, despite previously telling Parliament she had not.
In the interests of accountability, LNP members are also seeking clarity around the circumstances in which Labor’s then Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman was able to secretly approve $380,000 in public funding for Trad’s legal costs.
While the CCC found Trad’s actions did not amount to misconduct or corruption, The Courier-Mail reported they appeared to contradict statements Trad made in Parliament on February 19, 2020.
On that day Trad was asked whether she had intervened in the process to appoint her friend Frankie Carroll as a senior government job.
“The process to fill the under Treasurer role was a merit-based process,” she told the House. “It was conducted by an independent panel, of which I was not a member.”
Trad’s integrity was questioned when the crime watchdog found she aggressively intervened for her long-time friend and colleague Frankie Carroll to become under- treasurer, despite a panel deciding he was unqualified.
In its report the CCC said it had no jurisdiction over statements made in the Legislative Assembly.
However, the crime watchdog may have had an Ethics Committee referral in mind when it said it was up to Parliament to consider whether it was appropriate to take any other action.
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens, the chairman of the Ethics Committee said: “It is possible for former members to be referred to the Ethics Committee.”
“And if the committee finds wrongdoing, it has the power to give appropriate penalties,” he said.
“I can’t say anymore.”
The power of the Ethics Committee cannot be underestimated.
Deliberately lying to Parliament became a criminal offence in the Beattie era after an integrity debacle that saw Labor’s Gordon Nuttall jailed for corrupt conduct.
There are shades of meaning. Misleading the House by saying or presenting material known to be false is a serious violation that usually triggers a referral to the Ethics Committee. Then there is the less serious infringement of inadvertently misleading Parliament with the transgressor expected to promptly correct the record and apologise.
Nuttall was jailed in 2009 for accepting bribes from a mining tycoon. Scandal also visited the LNP in Premier Campbell Newman’s term after the CCC raided the home of the Member for Redcliffe, Scott Driscoll. Driscoll appeared before the Bar of Queensland Parliament over contempt charges.
Driscoll also fronted the Ethics Committee in November 2013 and was found guilty of 42 counts of contempt of Parliament.
Parliament voted to fine him $90,000. He was later jailed on fraud charges. The Australian described the Trad saga as a “rolled-gold political cover-up”.
The Trad report led to a bitter debate in Parliament about the Labor Party’s integrity failures and efforts to conceal them.
Using its “coercive powers” the CCC compelled Palaszczuk, Trad and Stewart to appear before star chamber hearings to answer questions about Frankie Carroll.
Palaszczuk said she got two calls from Trad: “The first one, she was begging me to appoint him, and the second phone call was yelling at me and telling me that I was going to pick up the pen and I was going to sign the document – and I said I’m not.”
Frecklington taunted Fentiman as Trad friend and ski buddy who described Trad as “a fierce advocate” and a friend and mentor on many occasions.
Treasured David Janetzki said the evidence pointed to the “aggression and intimidation” inside the public service. “Long before the yelling, screaming, intimidation and aggression that was on display in the Trad report, there are places in the Coaldrake report where it was discussed that public servants were yelled and screamed at,” he said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the report showed the “aggression, the bullying, the fear, the intimidation” that was “the culture of the Labor Party”.
He said it was no wonder Labor hid the report for three years. “The CCC report outlines that Jackie Trad aggressively and inappropriately interfered with the recruitment process.
“Former director-general Dave Stewart told the CCC he was influenced by Ms Trad’s ‘extremely aggressive lobbying’,” Bleijie said.
Bleijie said Stewart went further saying: “Any phone call I had with Jackie Trad was never a pleasant occasion. They were quite confrontational, they were aggressive.”
Bleijie reminded the House Fentiman failed to disclose luxury accommodation she received at Whistler in Canada while skiing with Trad. “Trad said it was modest, but when you look it up online it was anything but modest. It was a very nice ski lodge.”
Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, who is also the Minister for Integrity, has already hinted at a further examination of Trad. “We now know that there are questions for the former deputy premier to answer,” she told The Courier-Mail.
It was also revealed Ms Trad asked the new state government to provide an extra $5000 more to cover the cost of her failed legal fight to keep the CCC report secret.
In Parliament Frecklington criticised Fentiman for approving $380,000 in legal funding for her friend. “I am advised that Queensland taxpayers paid $16,809 for private legal assistance while the CCC was investigating. After that (Fentiman) signed off on $380,000 of taxpayers’ funds.
“That brings the total that the former attorney-general paid to Trad’s solicitors to $397,182 of taxpayers’ money. The Trad tap is going to be turned off.
“She came to me requesting me, as Attorney-General, to pay more towards her: nearly $5000. Guess what? The Trad tap is turned off. I am not going to pay for Jackie Trad’s legal fees. Queenslanders should not have to pay for Jackie Trad’s legal fees.”
Fentiman denied any improper behaviour. “Indemnity guidelines are very clear that it is the crown solicitor that provides advice about whether or not a matter falls within those guidelines,” she said.
“I also had requests for indemnity for people who were not on my same side of politics and if I wanted to play politics I well and truly could have but that’s not the role.”
The CCC report was also critical of Dave Stewart, the Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet in the Miles government.
He changed his assessment of Carroll’s suitability to be Under Treasurer from “not appointable” to “appointable” after Trad’s lobbying.
Stewart is now Queensland’s Agent-General in London.
Jacklyn Anne Trad was born in 1972 the second daughter of Lebanese immigrants who owned a fruit shop in Woolloongabba.
She lost her seat of South Brisbane to the Greens in 2020.
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