Qld: Premier stands by beseiged Spence in question time

AAP General News (Australia)
08-26-2008
Qld: Premier stands by beseiged Spence in question time

BRISBANE, Aug 26 AAP - Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has defended her police minister
from continuing innuendo that she will be ousted from the government before the next election.

Judy Spence's south Brisbane seat of Mount Gravatt has been redrawn and renamed in
an electoral redistribution, but Ms Bligh has supported her intention to stand for the
new neighbouring seat of Sunnybank.

A leaked letter earlier this month showed Ms Spence took a $50,000 trip to the US under
the condition she secured the Indy racing event for the Gold Coast, which she failed to
do.

Ms Spence told the media she believed the leak originated from Ms Bligh's office.

In state parliament today, opposition health spokesman Mark McArdle asked Ms Spence
why she had made the claim.

Ms Spence said leaks were an inevitable part of being in government, and she did not
want an investigation.

"I said that in the media to put some context around it," Ms Spence said.

"I was asked a question - would it have been leaked from my department - and I said
no because it was actually written in my office, so clearly it was leaked not from my
department."

Opposition police spokesman Vaughan Johnson later asked Ms Bligh how she felt about
Ms Spence's accusation about the leak, which he said was "a major security issue for Queensland".

Ms Bligh said she was not concerned about it, defending Ms Spence as "one of the most
successful police ministers this state has had for decades".

"There is somebody obviously who has access to that letter who thinks it's pretty scintillating.

"I'm not sure who it was, and frankly I don't care much, because our government believes
in getting on with the job," Ms Bligh said.

She then mocked Mr Johnson, who was first elected to parliament in 1989, as the "fresh
new face" of the Liberal National Party (LNP) frontbench.

"A real estate agent might describe it as having some rustic charm," Ms Bligh said.

LNP members are sitting in parliament together for the first time since the party formed in July.

AAP gd/pjo/cjh/bwl

KEYWORD: SPENCE

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