LNP takes independent Brisbane councillor Kate Richards to court over ‘misleading’ flyers

The LNP has told the Supreme Court that how-to-vote flyers used by former member Cr Kate Richards were misleading voters. A Pullenvale booth worker said voters had asked her why the LNP was running two candidates.

THE LNP’s State director has told the Supreme Court that an independent Brisbane councillor’s how-to-vote flyers for the council election are misleading.

Michael O’Dwyer said he objected to Pullenvale ward Cr Kate Richards, a former LNP member, using an image of Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner on one of her how-to-vote cards.

Mr O’Dwyer said she was misleading Pullenvale ward voters into thinking she was still an LNP member.

Councillor Kate Richards and Tony Morris QC. Picture: Tertius Pickard

The LNP has asked for a court order prohibiting the use of two of Cr Richards’s how-to-vote documents.

One of the campaign flyers had urged voters to vote 1 for her, and included a picture of Cr Schrinner and Deputy Mayor Krista Adams, as well as quotes from both of them.

Cr Richards’s counsel, Tony Morris QC, asked Mr O’Dwyer why Pullenvale voters were not allowed to read the “nice things” the Mayor and Deputy Mayor had said about her.

Mr O’Dwyer said LNP Queensland determined campaign material, the quotes were not part of its material and Cr Richards had been asked to cease using them.

He said they were misleading and conveyed a sense of endorsement of her.

Justice Susan Brown pointed out that one did not need to be an LNP member to suggest people should be voting for Cr Schrinner as mayor.

Leigh Warren, an LNP Pullenvale ward booth worker, told the Supreme Court that voters thought Councillor Kate Richards was an LNP candidate. Picture: Tertius Pickard

LNP Pullenvale ward booth worker Leigh Warren told the court five people she had spoken to since pre-polling opened had asked why the LNP was running two candidates.

Mr Morrison said at the most there might be temporary confusion.

He said it would not lead to someone, after reading the documents, to think that by voting for Cr Richards they were voting for an endorsed LNP candidate

Peter Hastie, counsel for the LNP, said Cr Richards was intentionally “piggybacking” on the Liberal Party by using its “well known” colours of blue and yellow on her material.

Mr Morris said Cr Richards’s cards used the colours blue, white and yellow, in different shades of blue and yellow to the LNP colours and the LNP had no monopoly on the colours.

Mr Morris said whether there was deception about the qualities, characteristics, views and opinions of a political candidate was a matter for the voting public, not for the courts to determine.

He said the worst that could be said was that Cr Richards’s cards could lead people to think she was an associate of the LNP who supported the mayor and deputy mayor and wanted voter support for herself.

Cr Richards’s documents listed her as an independent and said they were endorsed by her, rather than the LNP, Mr Morris said.

Justice Brown will deliver her decision on whether Cr Richards’s how-to-vote cards could be misleading to a voter tomorrow morning.