LNP continues to support Broadwater MP Verity Barton despite licence suspensions
UPDATE: The Premier has revealed Broadwater MP Verity Barton confessed to driving unlicensed — an offence that could have landed her in jail.
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UPDATE: The Premier has revealed Broadwater MP Verity Barton confessed to driving unlicensed — an offence that could have landed her in jail.
Premier Campbell Newman has told a press conference Verity Barton had confessed to driving unlicensed.
It was revealed yesterday the Broadwater MP had her licence suspended twice, in 2012 and 2013, after failing to pay tolls and their subsequent fines.
If Ms Barton drove during the suspension, she could be charged with unlicensed driving — an offence which would see her brought before court.
The maximum penalty for unlicensed driving is a year in prison.
Mr Newman was asked whether Ms Barton drove while unlicensed.
“That’s what she’s fessed up to,” he replied.
More information to come.
EARLIER: THE LNP is supporting Broadwater MP Verity Barton — despite the fact she’s had her licence suspended twice for not paying fines owed to taxpayers.
Ms Barton, who earns more than $200,000 a year, failed to pay a toll in 2012, and then ignored the resulting fine, forcing the government to suspend her licence.
She then did exactly the same thing in 2013.
The 28-year-old MP, already in one of the LNP’s weakest Gold Coast electorates, was called into an hours-long meeting with party heavyweights on Wednesday night — where several sources say she was almost disendorsed.
Ms Barton and her local adviser Aaron Payne went to bizarre lengths to avoid talking to the Bulletin at her Labrador office yesterday, before she issued a statement apologising for her actions.
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After calls to Ms Barton and Mr Payne went unanswered, the Bulletin went to the office, where the pair were talking behind the front desk.
Spotting the reporter, Ms Barton put her head down and walked quickly out of view.
“She’s actually just gone into a teleconference, so now is probably not a good time,” Mr Payne said, in a conversation recorded by the Bulletin.
“I’ll ring you guys back if that’s OK.”
Mr Payne said the teleconference was expected to go for “an hour” and that she would phone after it was finished.
He said the reporter would not be allowed to wait in the front office for her as it was after 5pm and then locked the door.
Less than 10 minutes later, they crept to their cars, started them up in unison and drove off.
Neither Ms Barton nor the party would reveal when her licence was reinstated, but LNP sources said the fines were not paid until after she was threatened with disendorsement late on Wednesday.
“The executive wanted her out — it is highly embarrassing as we head to an election,” the LNP figure said.
A spokesman for the party issued a statement last night saying she had “paid all penalties and has been forthcoming to the LNP about all incidents prior to the election.
“Verity has shown genuine remorse and enters the election campaign with the support of the LNP.”
Ms Barton’s statement, emailed to media as the Bulletin stood outside her office, said she had failed to pay the tolls and then failed to pay the subsequent fines “through my own oversight”.
“All fines have now been paid and my driver’s licence is valid,” she said.
“I acknowledge these suspensions occurred because of my own mistakes and my actions are not what is expected of a community leader and I sincerely apologise for that.
“I am saddened that these mistakes may overshadow my commitment to Broadwater. I am deeply passionate about serving the people of Broadwater and, if given the opportunity, I will be working extremely hard to provide them strong representation in the LNP Government.”
Broadwater was the focus of LNP controversy during the 2012 elections as well — with candidate Richard Towson losing his endorsement for the seat after drink-driving during the campaign.
His replacement Cameron Caldwell was disendorsed shortly after when a photo surfaced of him dressed as a pirate at a swingers party.
Pictures of Ms Barton’s official vehicle parked in a disabled space also circulated on social media this week, sparking a voter backlash.
Ms Barton was elected to Broadwater with a 11.29 per cent margin in the 2012 LNP clean sweep. Aged 26 at the time, she was among the youngest MPs in the state, still lived with her parents and was under fire for using Facebook to call voters “bogans”.
She also referred to rail passengers as “icky’’, called on welfare payments to be stopped for single parents and couples with children, and said then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former leader Kevin Rudd should stop breathing.
It is the second time a Gold Coast MP has been dragged before the LNP executive after controversial member for Mudgeeraba Ros Bates had to fight for her political future in October along with Redlands member Peter Dowling and former Liberal Leader, Moggill MP Bruce Flegg.
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