Queensland election 2017: Rick Williams claims secret recording

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has denied she begged rogue MP Rick Williams to stay in the months before his election-eve dumping last week.

Controversial former Labor Member for Pumicestone Rick Williams says the party dissuaded him from quitting multiple times.

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has denied she begged rogue MP Rick Williams to stay in the months before his election-eve dumping last week.

Sacked MP Williams threatened to release a secret recording of the Premier endorsing his efforts as a local MP, just a month before she sacked him, but she denies it.

“No, let’s get a reality check here,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

She said she was not worried about Mr Williams claims he taped conversations with her that he could release.

The explosive claims by the now Independent Member for Pumicestone also reveal the controversial MP was convinced by the Premier to stay on as a member of the Government, despite wanting to quit several times.

Mr Williams said he was considering releasing the tape, on which Ms Palaszczuk gave him a “glowing report” for his efforts as an MP in her Government.

“I had forgotten about it, but I thought I would go back through and I found it,” he said.

Such is the fallout between the Government and Mr Williams, the MP said he would preference the Labor Party “down the bottom somewhere” for the November 25 poll.

“They won’t be getting top billing, that’s for sure,” he told The Courier-Mail.

Ms Palaszczuk used the sacking of Mr Williams as a trigger to call the election, saying it was the “extraordinary step” she needed after a recording surfaced of him threatening a local newspaper owner.

At the weekend Mr Williams also threatened to release a recording of the conversation in which he was sacked.

Mr Williams said yesterday he had offered to quit the party within months of Ms Palaszczuk winning the election, after it was revealed he had acted inappropriately in a financial dispute and allegedly made a false police complaint against one of his neighbours.

“Once The Courier-Mail dumped all that stuff on me, it was pretty hard yards, and I actually said to them I won’t cause you any more embarrassment, I’ll go sit on the cross bench, and they said ‘oh no, you don’t need to do that’,” Mr Williams said.

“I probably got talked out of doing that four times.”

Mr Williams, who funded his own campaign to the tune of $50,000, said he was promised by the Labor Party that he would be reimbursed should he win however he is still yet to receive a cent.

“It was all pie-in-the-sky stuff,” he said.

Ms Palaszczuk’s office said in a statement Mr Williams was sacked on Friday night because of his treatment of a constituent.

“As the Premier said on Friday, Mr Williams’ behaviour toward a constituent last week was unacceptable. That’s why he was disendorsed,” it said.

Originally published as Queensland election 2017: Rick Williams claims secret recording