Former Queensland Tourism Minister charged with extortion
Former Queensland Tourism and Racing Minister Merri Rose was charged last week by Queensland’s Crime and Misconduct Commission with trying to extort a job from a public servant and will appear in court on Friday.
The Crime and Misconduct Commissions says that Ms Rose is to answer allegations that she threatened to reveal information about the public servant, their organisation or the Government unless she was given the job.
The former minister, who came under fire for abusing the use of her electoral car, resigned from cabinet in January 2004 amid allegations she bullied staff and soon after, she lost her Gold Coast seat of Currumbin in the State Election.
A source close to Ms Rose told Queensland media that the former minister was happy with her life on Moreton Island, 35km northeast of Brisbane, where she runs a fishing business with her partner, and that she had never expressed an interest in a public service job.
The Australian says that Ms Rose has hired civil liberties lawyer Terry O’Gorman to defend her, but Mr O’Gorman said yesterday he had been instructed not to comment on the case, but The Australian understands the alleged incident occurred in the past month.
The Coalition has called on Premier Peter Beattie to return from a trade mission in the Middle East and Europe, but Acting Premier Anna Bligh said that was unnecessary as the matter was before the CMC, Ms Bligh adding that her Government had acted appropriately and was determined to be open and accountable.
“I don’t think that this is a matter on which the Government should be judged; it’s obviously a matter on which the individual concerned will ultimately be judged,” she said.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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