A leaked video by Karen Williams, Government spending in the Redlands and Redlands perspectives on defamation laws were discussed by local MPs Don Brown (Capalaba), Kim Richards (Redlands) and Mark Robinson (Oodgeroo) this week in State Parliament.
Speeches about defamation laws and the state budget are discussed below, but we begin with Karen Williams’ video to LNP party members.
Karen Williams’ leaked preselection video
On Friday morning Don Brown posted to his Facebook page the Karen Williams’ video pitch to replace Andrew Laming as the LNP’s candidate for Bowman at the forthcoming Federal election.
That afternoon in State Parliament, during his speech about the State budget, Mr Brown explained how he came by the video, and tabled a transcript of the words said by Karen Williams in her video.
“The mayor put out an absolute doozy of a campaign video yesterday. It was emailed to the Liberal members in her area. I got the email about five minutes later because there is infighting within the LNP”, he said.
Karen Williams says in her video: “If you support me, you’ll be getting a born and bred Redlander who has a long-term affiliation with the LNP”.
This begs the question – why was this long term affiliation with the LNP not declared in Councillor Williams’ declarations of interests to Redland City Council at any time prior to 20 May 2021 when her Register of Interests was updated to disclose membership of the LNP?
A claim by Karen Williams in her video that she toppled “the Labor mayor” is false.
In a statement to Redlands2030, Melva Hobson (the previous mayor of Redland City) said: “I have never been and am not a member of any political party. As a teacher, state public servant, senior public servant and mayor I felt strongly that I should be totally independent.”
Imputing (wrongly) that a person is a member of a political party or is influenced by a political party could be regarded as defamation. It is understood that Mrs Hobson is seeking legal advice.
Defamation action in Redlands
Both Kim Richards and Don Brown commented on various defamation actions in the Redlands during a debate on 16 June 2021 about a bill to amend defamation laws in Queensland.
In her speech, Kim Richards read a letter emailed to her from a local resident with a background in journalism about legal action taken by Karen Williams two years ago.
Ms Richards also spoke about the Queensland Ombudsman’s 2017 report titled ‘The Redland City Council defamation report: an investigation into the threat of legal action against two residents by Redland City Council’.
The Ombudsman’s report was discussed in a story published by Redlands2030 in January 2017: Ombudsman slams Redland City Council
Don Brown’s defamation experience
Don Brown told Parliament that he wanted to “bring some real-world experience to this debate”.
“Over the last 12 months I have received not one, not two, not three but four concerns notices, three of which have come from LNP members in the Redlands and one of which comes from an LNP supporter and campaign worker for Andrew Laming” said Mr Brown. He discussed in his speech details of the various defamation concerns notices that he has received from:
- Mayor Karen Williams
- LNP candidate for Capalaba at the 2020 state elections, Bev Walters
- Councillor Rowanne McKenzie
- Federal MP for Bowman, Andrew Laming
Good budget for Redlands say Labor MPs
The Queensland State Budget was delivered this week by Treasurer Cameron Dick.
Labor MPs Don Brown and Kim Richards spoke in support of the budget, listing the various projects and activities in Redlands which would be funded by the State Government.
Typical Labor budget says Mark Robinson
In his speech, Mark Robinson (LNP – Oodgeroo) criticised the 2021/22 State Budget saying:
“I can agree that this is a typical Labor government budget. It is a budget in which it is losing control of law and order, housing, the health system and of the state government finances”.
The scope of works to upgrade Cleveland-Redland Bay Road was discussed by Dr Robinson.
“It is disappointing that the government is working at a snail’s pace on the upgrade of the Cleveland-Redland Bay Road. It is the only major upgrade of road that we can see in the budget at this point, with only $14.6 million allocated out of $110 million promised in this budget. We need to move at a faster pace than that. The Thornlands section has been cut from this project meaning it is only a partial duplication, not the full duplication”, he said.
The location of a new fire station was another point raised in Dr Robinson’s speech:
“The situation in relation to the Mount Cotton fire station is an absolute farce. Before the election the member for Springwood, Minister de Brenni, promised a new fire station in Mount Cotton. He named the road it would be on in Mount Cotton. The budget papers reveal it is going somewhere else, not to Mount Cotton in the Redlands—another broken election promise”.
Dr Robinson pushed for the Government to commit funds for the Eastern Busway and Cleveland Train line duplication “in support of the Olympics”.
He also expressed concerns about Redland Hospital where “…ambulance ramping has become as high as 51 per cent…”.
Redlands2030 – 20 June 2021
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One Comment
Former prime minister [John Howard] once said,”if we were to start again with a new system we would eliminate the states and deal directly with local government”, or words to that effect. All local council representatives should be independent. Let us support those who are not influenced by the major parties and big business influences. I like the old system,no salary just an allowance for councillers.