One of the civil cases,involving a “most serious issue”,was raised by manager of opposition business Jarrod Bleijie on the floor of parliament during its first sitting day of 2022 on Tuesday,details of which cannot be repeated due to Supreme Court restrictions.
But the comments,attributed to a “number of sources”,were broadcast publicly on the parliamentary video stream and remain published online onthe official Hansard transcript.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday,Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman excoriated Mr Bleijie – who held the portfolio in the Newman government – as the “most unprofessional and unknowledgeable person to hold the office ... in Queensland’s history”.
“Let me be clear,his comments calling on the Premier to intervene and order a report be released prior to the decision of the court would absolutely amount to contempt if said outside this chamber,” she said. “[He] has failed to respect the most basic principle of our legal and political system.”
Mr Bleijie later responded by saying he would repeat his actions if he had “his day again” because the only way for there to be transparency about the issues was to “let the sunlight in”.
“I’m not going to be bullied by the Attorney-General for raising these important matters,when someone runs off to a court to try to hide documents that should be in the public domain,” he said. “I’m not going to be bullied and intimidated by a Labor Attorney-General that I shouldn’t have raised these matters.”