Labor out of line on independent officials

Treasurer Tim Nicholls has called on Queensland Labor to publicly apologise for accusing independent officers of Queensland Treasury of lying.

Mr Nicholls said comments from the Member for Mulgrave Curtis Pitt yesterday, where he called Treasury officials “irresponsible” and claimed they had “concocted” economic modelling, were shameful.

“This is a new low for Labor,” Mr Nicholls said.

“Accusing hard-working public servants of lying and falsifying documents for no reason other than the fact that they simply didn’t like what an economic report had to say is absolutely unacceptable.

“Mr Pitt must apologise immediately and unreservedly for his comments.

“Not content with his own ridiculous “plan to have a plan” to deal with Queensland’s debt, Mr Pitt now makes wild assertions about the validity of independent Treasury officials’ expertise, calling their credentials into question despite the fact many of them served under the former Labor government.

“These public servants, whose years of commitment and dedication to providing frank and fearless advice on Queensland’s economy should see them held beyond reproach, have been poorly treated by these grubby tactics from Labor.

“With no idea himself on how to start paying down the mountain of debt Labor accumulated for Queenslanders, Mr Pitt is swinging blindly and has hit out at a completely inappropriate target.”

Mr Nicholls said the comments, made in a press conference following the release of Treasury’s Economic and Fiscal Challenges report, were spectacularly irresponsible and damaging to the reputations of the independent public officials who had worked on the document.

[ENDS] 19 March 2014

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