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The Queensland government has dumped MP Alex Douglas as the new chairman of parliament’s legal affairs and community safety committee.
Manager of government business Ray Stevens introduced the motion on Wednesday, amid a bitter dispute with Dr Douglas over his removal as chairman of the ethics committee.
Dr Douglas says he was dumped as chairman in what appeared to be a politically motivated sacking.
But Mr Stevens has claimed Dr Douglas was perfectly happy with plans to make him chair of the legal affairs and community safety committee, which required him to give up his ethics committee role.
Dr Douglas abstained from the vote to remove him.
He earlier told reporters he’d asked Premier Campbell Newman to force Mr Stevens to retract false statements about his ouster from the ethics committee.
He said his confidence in Mr Newman would depend on the premier’s response.
In moving the motion on Wednesday, Mr Stevens said Dr Douglas’s concerns, aired on morning radio, had come as a complete surprise.
He said he’d spoken at length with Dr Douglas about his new role and the Gold Coast MP appeared happy and comfortable with the change.
‘At no stage did the member for Gaven (Dr Douglas) say he didn’t want to do this (new) role … and indicated he’d like to do the role,’ Mr Stevens told parliament.
‘It was a complete surprise … to hear that he was no longer happy to take on this role.’
Dr Douglas told parliament he at no stage asked to be removed from the ethics committee.
He called on the premier to reinstate him as chairman of the ethics committee and to his role as the deputy chairman of the parliamentary crime and misconduct committee.
He repeated his earlier call for Mr Stevens to retract comments he made about the circumstances of his ouster.
‘I completely reject the statements made today by the Leader of the House and I ask for a full retraction of every statement defaming my character,’ he said.
Opposition treasury spokesman Curtis Pitt rose in support of Dr Douglas, telling parliament he believed the Gaven MP’s version of events.
‘There is only one committee he should be the chair of and that’s the ethics committee,’ Mr Pitt said.
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