LNP leader Campbell Newman claims sex and sleaze dossiers on Labor have been shredded

OPPOSITION Leader Jeff Seeney breaks ranks with Campbell Newman, indicating that senior LNP office bearers may have to be sacked if involved in ordering the now infamous dirt files.

OPPOSITION Leader Jeff Seeney has broken ranks with Campbell Newman and indicated LNP office bearers may have to be sacked if involved in ordering the now infamous dirt files.

Following a harrowing question time in Parliament for the Opposition, Mr Seeney said LNP office staff should not bear the brunt of the fallout from the scandal.

The Government has demanded both campaign director James McGrath and state secretary Michael O'Dwyer be removed.

However, Mr Seeney said officials appointed by the party may have to go.

These may include president Bruce McIver, who has insisted he was unaware of the files, and Treasurer Barry O'Sullivan, who the Labor insider that wrote the files has linked to them.

"We need to be careful we don't blame staffers, the people who run the organisation need to take the responsibility," he said.

"Whether it is the senior office holders, whatever office they hold, if they have made the decision they need to take the responsibility, not have all that responsibility borne by the staffers."

Mr McIver has this afternoon returned Mr Seeney's fire, saying he was not aware of the files and the Opposition Leader already knows that.

"We would be happy to (resign) if we were involved but we are not involved," he told couriermail.com.au.

"And Mr Seeney knows that."

Mr McIver said the Opposition Leader and other elected LNP MPs should have other priorities at Parliament rather than questioning whether officer bearers were involved in ordering the dirt files.

"I call on the parliamentary wing to focus on what they should be focused on which is cost of living and this Bligh Government," he said.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported that documents which threaten to spin Campbell Newman off his path to the premiership had been shredded.

Mr Newman last night told The Courier-Mail that all 49 dossiers on Labor MPs had been destroyed at LNP headquarters following one of his most tumultuous days since he quit City Hall to run for the state's top job.

"I was advised by the party at 7.15pm that the files had been shredded as I had insisted," he said.

Read the controversial dossiers in a special 8-page liftout in today's print edition of The Courier-Mail.

Just hours earlier, Mr Newman appeared at loggerheads with LNP boss Bruce McIver over the sex and sleaze dossiers paid for by the party.

The LNP leader yesterday maintained he was unaware the LNP had purchased the material from a Labor turncoat, and repeated the documents would be destroyed.

But late yesterday, Mr McIver issued a statement saying the LNP would only edit out parts of the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis it believed was inappropriate, and retain the rest of the material purchased for $3075 from former Labor ministerial adviser Robert Hough.

"A small number of the SWOT analyses contain comments and observations of a nature that are the personal view of the author and were deemed inappropriate and no use has been made of them," Mr McIver said in a statement.

"These comments are being removed from the report and will not be retained."

But Mr McIver last night told The Courier-Mail all documents had been shredded, admitting the wrong impression could have been conveyed by his statement.

"There is no confusion," Mr McIver said.

The material in the analyses ranges from mundane observations of Labor MPs that can be obtained from simple internet searches, to salacious accusations about the frequency and preferences of their sex lives.

Mr Newman said, unlike Labor, the LNP had used its own money to obtain dirt on its opponent, but conceded paying for the material had been a grievous mistake.

More articles plus analysis on the dirt dossiers in today's print edition of The Courier-Mail.

He said his labelling of Labor MPs last week as "drunks, punks and desperadoes" was not based on information from the material but gained from years being in Queensland politics.

Mr Newman said the staffers involved - LNP campaign director James McGrath and state director Michael O'Dwyer - would be disciplined, but would not lose their jobs.

Deputy Premier Andrew Fraser said Mr Newman's apology was akin to someone "apologising for stealing a wallet, but wanting to keep the money that he got out of it".

Labor stepped up its demands that Mr McGrath and Mr O'Dwyer be sacked.

"It will forever be the case that if he keeps them on, they'll swing around his neck like a rotting carcass, the death of decency in public office in this state," Mr Fraser said.