News location:

Canberra Today 20°/24° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Papergate: Zed says it’s all a witch hunt

OPPOSITION Leader Zed Seselja is claiming the ACT Labor Government is pursuing the investigation into the Liberal party timesheet controversy for “political reasons”.

Mr Seselja told media today that all issues had been looked at by corporate services and resolved.

“I noted the Speaker’s comments that he made over the weekend about no outstanding compliance issues; that’s what the Speaker has said,” Seselja said.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher also addressed the media, saying she had spoken to  Speaker Shane Rattenbury on Friday about unanswered questions on the possible investigation.

She said he understood the seriousness of the matter, but it was now up to the Assembly  to “stand up and make a call” on what needs to be done about the investigation.

“It will be something the Assembly as a whole who will need to determine it this week,” she said.

The Cabinet will meet this afternoon to discuss the possible options including an AFP investigation or a privileges inquiry.

“No way does this need to be a political witch hunt,” the Chief Minister said.

“Questions have been raised about the integrity of the Leader of the Opposition’s office and half a million dollars of tax payers’ funds go into that office and I think we need to be able to reassure the community that that has been used appropriately.”

Mr Seselja said any move by the Labor Party and the Greens to open up an inquiry “about time sheets”, could be seen as “election-year posturing”.

“It’s very difficult for the Labor Party to be throwing out those accusations,” he said.

“We found out just this weekend that sometimes they are taking five years to pay their bills… this is a government that has no credibility on these issues.

“We are going to concentrate the important issues on Canberra families.”

Who can be trusted?

In a world of spin and confusion, there’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in Canberra.

If you trust our work online and want to enforce the power of independent voices, I invite you to make a small contribution.

Every dollar of support is invested back into our journalism to help keep citynews.com.au strong and free.

Become a supporter

Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Share this

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Follow us on Instagram @canberracitynews