Attorney-General Yvette D’ath in cash-for-access drama
Queensland Labor sold access to Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath to two high-profile businesses, after she’d introduced laws to ban the fundraisers. And the Premier can’t rule out it won’t happen again.
QLD Votes
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD Votes. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath hasn’t ruled out attending more cash-for-access fundraisers before the State Government’s legislation, which bans the controversial events, comes into effect.
The Australian today reported that Queensland Labor sold access to the Palaszczuk Government Minister to Tabcorp and KPMG at Labor’s Business Partnership Program event in August, after she’d introduced laws to ban the fundraisers.
The laws have passed but don’t come into effect until 2022.
Ms D’ath this morning defended her meetings, insisting she had complied with the ministerial handbook and disclosed the meetings.
“I haven’t thrown any principles out the window, I’m very proud of the legislation that I drafted and we brought in as a Labor Government,” she said.
“It is the Palaszczuk Government that now has introduced and passed the strongest laws in the country on integrity around donations, around expenditure caps.
“We have to transition those through.”
The Attorney-General said there had been “so many reports” from various bodies about the cash-for-access events that “talks about the perception of potential influence of big money on candidates and politicians.”
Asked why she then attended one, Ms D’Ath said she had not breached any laws.
“It is important that we understand that we’re transitioning to these changes in 2022,” she said.
“These events were being held in the lead up to these elections because the laws haven’t changed as yet.”
She said her meeting with gambling giant Tabcorp was about issues around national and state reforms in the gaming area.
Asked whether she would be attending any possible fundraisers ahead of 2022, Ms D’Ath said she didn’t know what the Labor Party had planned.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would not rule out her ministers taking part in further cash-for-access fundraising events before they become illegal.
As she hit the hustings in Rockhampton on Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk claimed every party would continue holding the events before new laws begin in 2022.
Asked today why her ministers won’t stop holding them now, Ms Palaszczuk said: “because the laws come in in 2022”.
“We have brought in the strongest electoral reforms in the nations, that has been widely celebrated,” she said.
“That comes into play in two years time, as does the public funding at the next election.
“Until then, parties need to fundraise, but everything must be done in accordance with the law.
“We have to abide by the laws and that’s exactly what we will be doing.”
