Deb Frecklington cleared of allegations she deliberately misled parliament

LNP MP Deb Frecklington has been cleared of allegations she deliberately misled parliament when she criticised Labor MP Tom Smith over he and his government’s response to youth crime.

Nanango MP Deb Frecklington has been cleared of allegations she deliberately misled Parliament when she criticised Bundaberg MP Tom Smith over his and the government's response to youth crime concerns in a ‘heated debate’.

The state’s ethics committee has cleared LNP Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington of allegations she deliberately misled parliament during “heated debate” about youth crime and the Queensland government’s response to concerns it had become a crisis.

Mrs Frecklington was accused of misleading the house on March 15, 2023, when she claimed Labor Member for Bundaberg Tom Smith had neglected to mention victims of crime or police officers in his own parliamentary comments earlier in the sitting.

Mr Smith said the accusations were untrue.

He lodged a complaint about three of Mrs Frecklington’s comments, accusing her of deliberately misleading parliament.

His complaint was referred to the ethics committee in August following initial inquiries by the acting Speaker.

Mrs Frecklington was cleared by the committee on Thursday when its final report was tabled in state parliament.

The report, published online, found two of Mrs Frecklington’s statements were misleading.

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Bundaberg Labor MP Tom Smith accused Nanango LNP MP Deb Frecklington of deliberately misleading parliament with her comments about one of his own speeches in parliament in March. Mrs Frecklington was cleared by the ethics committee. Picture: Zak Simmonds

However while Mrs Frecklington was in parliament at the time Mr Smith made his own comments which mentioned victims and police, the committee found there was “insufficient evidence” she knew her statements were incorrect when making them.

Without this it “would not reach the threshold of the very high order of proof required to establish an intention to mislead”.

The report said “her remarks were made off the cuff, during heated debate” and such comments “rarely” reached the required standard of proof.

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The ethics committee found Deb Frecklington had made misleading comments when she accused Tom Smith of not mentioning victims or police in his own speech, which he did, but there was no evidence she intended to mislead parliament.

Mrs Frecklington had earlier apologised for a third comment in which she said Mr Smith had mentioned breach of bail laws the LNP had itself been calling for.

Speaking about the laws, Mrs Freckling told parliament in March:

“I could read pages and pages and pages from history with all of these statements, including from the police minister, the youth justice minister, the Acting Leader of the House right now and the member for Bundaberg”.

Mr Smith said he never referred to breach of bail laws, the report said.

Mrs Frecklington apologised, telling the acting Speaker she had “bundled” claims of breach of bail laws made by various members and “inadvertently” included Mr Smith in them.

She on Wednesday Mr Smith “would be better suited to serving his constituents than wasting everyone’s time with petty claims such as this”.

A spokesman for Mr Smith’s office said, in response to a request for comment:

“The Member for Bundaberg accepts the apology made by the Member for Nanango in her letter addressed to the Speaker, and hopes that the Member can refrain from such errors in the future”.