Annastacia Palaszczuk under attack for ‘inadequate’ apology after being found guilty of contempt

Annastacia Palaszczuk has apologised to Parliament after she was found guilty of contempt for stripping the Katter party of its extra resources because its MPs would not denounce former senator Fraser Anning.

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has apologised after being found guilty of contempt for stripping the Katter’s Australian Party of its resources when its MPs would not denounce then senator Fraser Anning.

Ms Palaszczuk told the house she accepted responsibility and offered her “unreserved apology”.

Katter Party state leader Robbie Katter slammed the penalty handed to Ms Palaszczuk, warning it set a precedent that threatened democracy in the House.

“ … how do we protect the democracy of this house and the precedent that this can set if people can see that you can get away with this is parliament with a simple apology for threatening people, bullying people,” Mr Katter told Parliament.

LNP Leader Deb Frecklington attacked Ms Palaszczuk as the only premier “in living history” to have been found in contempt of the parliament.

She declared the Premier’s apology — recommended by the Ethics Committee — as inadequate.

Leader of Opposition Business Jarrod Bleije said Ms Palaszczuk had “failed the character test” in her five years as Premier, presiding over one integrity crisis after another.

“If there was true leadership in the Labor party in the state of Queensland we would not have got to this position of an ethics referral and we would have not got (sic) to the position today where we’re debating a premier for the first time I can recall being found in contempt of parliament and this is serious,” Mr Bleije said.

“It is so serious ... and the Premier ought to consider her position because she has overseen, in the last five years, crisis after crisis of her own integrity and the Premier has failed to act on those scandals.

“And then, believing she had the right to simply take and give as she choose (sic) with respect to taxpayer money for crossbenchers and who knows, if it wasn’t going to then extend to the Opposition office.”

Parliament’s powerful Ethics Committee handed down its report into the matter this morning, 12 months after the matter was initially referred by Speaker Curtis Pitt.

Fraser Anning speech: Robbie Katter slams Annastacia Palaszczuk’s reaction

The standoff between Annastacia Palaszczuk and Robbie Katter gets ugly

“The committee finds that the actions of the Premier in threatening to withdraw parliamentary resources from KAP members unless they made a statement to the Premier’s satisfaction condemning Senator (Fraser) Anning’s Speech in the Senate, and withdrawing parliamentary resources from KAP members on the basis that they failed to make a statement to the Premier’s satisfaction condemning Senator Anning’s Speech in the Senate amounted to an improper interference with the free performance by the KAP members of their duties and constitutes a contempt of the parliament.”

“Where the Premier fell into error was to link the review of the KAP’s additional resources, and the ultimate withdrawal of those resources, with the call to denounce Senator Anning’s statement.

But the committee found there were “mitigating circumstances”, finding the apology to be an “adequate penalty” for the contempt.

The Ethics Committee was also critical of the Crime and Corruption Commission, labelling its handling of the initial complaint “problematic”.

“It was not fair to the Premier to essentially declare there was prima facie evidence of the commission of a crime but that a prosecutorial discretion would be exercised not to proceed,” the committee’s report stated.

“The CCC also created an expectation that a contempt had been committed, when that was a matter for this committee to examine and ultimately a matter for the Legislative Assembly to determine.”

It has asked Parliament’s Crime and Corruption Committee — which oversees the operations of the CCC — to look into the watchdog’s actions.

In a letter to the committee tabled alongside its report, Ms Palaszczuk said she was unaware that her actions could constitute a contempt.

“My motivation was not to undermine any parliamentary processes; rather it was to denounce comments made by former Senator Anning about the ‘final solution’ — comments which I described at the time as ‘abhorrent and counter to the most basic human rights, including equality and freedom from discrimination,” she wrote.

“My conduct did not involve any element of dishonesty.”

Ms Palaszczuk told the committee she would apologise to the House as soon as possible after the report was tabled.

She has also committed to handing over responsibility for crossbench resourcing, potentially to the Queensland Independent Remuneration Tribunal.

The Ethics Committee recommended the Committee of the Legislative Assembly develop guidelines for cross-bench resources going forward.

The committee held 14 meetings regarding the matter — including one in Townsville during the regional parliament sittings — before finalising its report on September 17.