Crisafulli accuses Palaszczuk govt of censoring budget criticism

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He claims that the first office requested multiple amendments to the statement after it was submitted on May 17, especially around the health funding claim.

The eventual approved letter was only released on June 10, 11 days before the budget was handed down, with many not reaching voters in the mail until after the state budget had been delivered.

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Asked about the claims on Sunday, Deputy Premier Steven Miles maintained the edits made to the LNPs mail-outs were decided on by public servants.

These are the very independent public servants who David Crisafulli has for months been saying that he respects, and now he is questioning their independence the second they tell him that he cant use taxpayers funds to distribute lies to the letterboxes of Queenslanders, Miles said.

This is how he has chosen to use his conference speech not to talk about cost of living, or healthcare or jobs … he is choosing to use his platform to use taxpayer funds to distribute lies in LNP junk mail.

The government of the day has controlled the funding of opposition and minor parties for a long period of time, and they are subject to the same transparency and accuracy measures as government departments.

However, Crisafulli pointed out that official communications from ministerial offices was not subject to the Code.

So there you have it the Premiers department can censor the opposition, but ministerial officers are not subjected to the same rules, he said.

I am calling on the Premier to end this practice relinquish control over the opposition and hand it back to the Parliament.

The LNP have struck a number of blows to the Palaszczuk government on the subject on transparency and accountability in recent weeks, culminating in the release of a report by Queenslands Crime and Corruption Commission which suggested the risk of corruption had intensified inside the state government, amid a surge in lobbying.

In response the premier banned certain individuals and groups from directly lobbying her government, and promised to implement a range of measures to make the government more accountable.

Crisafulli acknowledged the work on his team in using the issue to put political pressure on Labor, and said he believed the third-term government was finally showing signs of vulnerability.

I wont kid you yes there have been some good moments in the last 12 months, but we are a long way from winning government, he said.

To paraphrase a legend [Winston Churchill] this is not the end of the Palaszczuk government, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

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