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No show by Labor MPs keeps Trad case legal costs secret

Four Queensland Labor MPs have failed to show up for a vote on revealing the legal costs of a case involving former deputy premier Jackie Trad.

Jun 23, 2022, updated Jun 23, 2022
Jonty Bush, Labor member for Cooper, was one of the MPs who failed to show up at a parliamentary crime and misconduct committee meeting. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Jonty Bush, Labor member for Cooper, was one of the MPs who failed to show up at a parliamentary crime and misconduct committee meeting. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Their no-show again prevented the costs of the corruption watchdog’s legal case against Trad from being released.

Trad, who lost her seat at the 2020 election, is in a legal battle with the Crime and Corruption Commission to stop it releasing a report into allegations she interfered in the recruitment of under-treasurer Frankie Carroll in 2019.

Taxpayers are footing the legal bills of both Ms Trad, due to indemnity rules, and the commission.

The watchdog outlined its legal costs in a letter to a parliamentary committee, but Labor MPs Jonty Bush, Jess Pugh, Melissa McMahon and Ali King delayed its release last month.

The committee was due on Thursday to vote on releasing the letter again, but the panel had to be adjourned because no Labor government MPs turned up.

Liberal National Party committee chair Jon Krause called the no-show an “extraordinary” attempt to keep an “embarrassing” document suppressed.

He said the four Labor MPs – Bush, Pugh, Jennifer Howard and Don Brown – failing to turn up had also prevented the panel from doing other important work.

“These are matters both on the public agenda but also the private meeting that needed to be dealt with in the committee, important matters, and it’s disappointing they haven’t been able to show today,” Krause told reporters afterwards.

Bush said she and her three Labor colleagues had other appointments, and they had informed the committee chair on Wednesday night.

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“It is a really busy week for us, regrettably, as you’d understand,” she said.

“Very happy to work with the committee, of course, and work with them about getting some future dates up and keep the work progressing.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli claimed the Labor MPs ditched the committee because they were “following orders from above”.

“Who is the Labor puppet master pulling the strings, so hell-bent on blocking the truth from coming out about Jackie Trad? What are they trying to hide?” he said.

“If the four Labor MPs were smart they would cut their Labor bosses loose because the Queenslanders they represent won’t stand for this disgraceful affront to democracy.”

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