Moreton Bay Regional councillor Mike Charlton grilled over links to Mayor Allan Sutherland at CCC hearing

MORETON Bay Regional Council deputy mayor Mike Charlton appears as a witness before the Crime and Corruption Commission hearing into the 2016 council elections.

Cr Mike Charlton at CCC hearing 19/4/17

MORETON Bay Regional Council deputy mayor Mike Charlton on Wednesday afternoon appeared as a witness before the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) hearing into the 2016 council elections of Moreton Bay, the Gold Coast and Ipswich.

It was the second day of the inquiry at which Alan Macsporran is presiding officer and Glen Rice is counsel assisting.

Mr Rice asked Cr Charlton questions about his co-operation with mayoral candidate Allan Sutherland at the 2016 election.

This included Cr Charlton letterboxing an endorsement letter from Cr Sutherland with a joint how-to-vote card on the back.

“My thought process was simply I think there’s some benefit potentially in that, so I accepted the offer,” Cr Charlton said.

He ran for Division 9 as an independent in 2012 and 2016 after running in 2008 as a member of a group with unsuccessful mayoral candidate Bryan Galvin.

Counsel Assisting Mr Rice told the hearing: “Under the 2011 Act, a group has to be registered with the Electoral Commission giving notice of who the members of the group are and other details.”

Cr Charlton said: “The way I view the word ‘independent’ is that I’m not obligated to anybody else, that I am free to make the decisions that I see fit, and certainly when it comes to holding office, there is no obligation upon me to vote any particular way to honour a commitment to anyone else.”

He said he intended to split the cost of producing the endorsement letter but it did not work out that way.

“My intent, the decision to do the letter, was for me to pay 50 per cent,” Cr Charlton said. “Post-election, Allan offered to pay for the whole lot, and my response was I would accept that, but it had to be declared as a third party declaration, which it was.”

Cr Charlton and Cr Sutherland had a joint how-to-vote card with the slogan “For a bright future”.

“Again, Allan offered to pay for the entire cost, which, again, was part of that declaration,” Cr Charlton said.

Cr Sutherland, Cr Charlton, and Cr Mick Gillam appeared together on a campaign billboard off Gympie Rd, near the area known locally as the Bald Hills Flats.

The invoice for that billboard was made out to “A Bright Future for Moreton.”

“I was going to pay a percentage of the billboard and when it came time for that to be arranged, the Mayor again offered to pick up my share as well as his share and, again, my response was I would accept that, but it had to be part of that third party declaration, which it was then, and is,” Cr Charlton told the hearing.

Mr Rice spoke about another billboard on Anzac Avenue which had the images of Cr Sutherland, Division 6 candidate Koliana Winchester, and Division 5 candidate James Houghton.

Cr Charlton said he had made preliminary inquiries to the provider of that billboard “simply as assistance to the Mayor”.

Cr Charlton was asked about his fundraising efforts at the 2016 election and his requirement to keep a dedicated bank record of the financial aspects of his campaign.

He said Bryan Galvin organised a fundraiser in March 2016 at Excelsior Football Club at Albany Creek which raised thousands of dollars for his campaign. “It was in the middle of the election campaign, so I had no role in that at all,” Cr Charlton told the hearing.

Cr Charlton was also asked about his association with the Moreton Futures Trust, a substantial donor to Cr Sutherland in 2012 and 2016.

“I’ve known (Moreton Futures Trust trustee in 2012) Kirby (Leeke) for a long time, through family associations and associations with the Masonic Lodge,” Cr Charlton said.

“(Moreton Futures Trust trustee in 2012) Dr John (Ryan) has been my personal physician for quite some years now ... and he was also a mutual friend of Bryan Galvin’s,” Cr Charlton said.

“I was part of the discussions and the concept for the formation of the trust, and then there was a change in legislation, there was a change in trustees, and I determined to not have any active role in the trust from, off the top of my head, early 2012, prior to the 2012 election,” Cr Charlton said.

He said he was aware of some trust fundraising activities. “I’m aware of an event out at Lakeside, a motorsport day. In fact, I think there was more than one, I think there was two. I think there was a corporate dinner.”

Dr John Ryan and Kirby Leeke are witnesses at today’s sessions of the CCC hearing.

Also on the witness list today is a donor to Allan Sutherland’s election campaign, Tim Connolly.