Premier Steven Miles has defended his health minister over claims she directed online bullies to an opposition MP,saying “nasty” Ros Bates should not have yelled “cross your legs” to Shannon Fentiman across the chamber if she did not want that publicised.
Bates has reportedly considered legal action against Fentiman over the latter’s posting of the exchange on social media,which Bates said resulted in a barrage of abuse towards her and electorate office staffers.
Bates told parliament yesterday that,by posting the video online,Fentiman had incited threats of violence against her,an allegation Fentiman demanded Bates withdraw.
“I am a victim and I do not withdraw,” Bates said,prompting a warning from Speaker Curtis Pitt.
Speaking at the Queensland Children’s Hospital this morning,Miles said Bates was “one of the nastiest people in the Queensland parliament” who consistently said “terrible things” in the chamber.
“If she doesn’t want Queenslanders to see what she says in the parliament,she shouldn’t say things like that,” he said.
Miles said there was no excuse for online bullying.
“Unfortunately,politicians receive messages like that every day,” he said.
“You could go to my Facebook page,or you could open my email inbox,and today there would be hundreds of messages like that,including death threats.
“It’s a very unfortunate part of these jobs and I have been very vocal in calling on particularly the social media companies to do more to keep people safe online,and to do more to eradicate this kind of treatment online.”