Queensland Labor MP stood down from committee as police examine claims
A Queensland government MP has been stood down from a parliamentary committee while police examine a string of allegations provided by a newspaper.
Rick Williams has been accused of forging financial documents, trying to hire someone to have his ex-wife’s boyfriend “done over” and sexually harassing a teenage employee in the years before he was elected to parliament.
Following calls by the opposition for Williams to be suspended from the legal affairs and community safety committee, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament on Thursday she had done so while the claims were investigated by police.
The Courier-Mail, which published claims made by former employees of Williams’s financial planning business and his ex-wife’s boyfriend, provided their sworn statements upon police request and at Palaszczuk’s urging on Wednesday.
The paper reported one of Williams’s accusers, Bruce McLean, was contacted on the same day by police minister Jo-Ann Miller, a mutual friend of the two men.
McLean, who the paper reported has served jail time for assault, claimed Miller had cautioned him about speaking to the media.
Miller said she had phoned to “enquire after his welfare and offer support”.
Palaszczuk told parliament Miller had made an “error in judgment, it won’t happen again”.
Williams, a first-time MP for Pumicestone who in recent years ran a tow truck company, has denied wrongdoing.
He did not return Guardian Australia’s calls.
