A QUEENSLAND politician has accused the premier of using her alleged nervous breakdown as a political weapon.
CAMPBELL Newman has been accused of taking parliamentary point scoring to a new level by tabling a document that suggested opposition frontbencher Jo-Ann Miller suffered a mental illness in August 1996 – three and a half years before she became an MP.
But Ms Miller said she never suffered a nervous breakdown, adding that the file “could very well be” concocted. “It’s untrue. I’d never seen it before it was tabled in parliament,” she told AAP on Friday. “I find it astonishing that Mr Newman would use his position as premier to attempt to use mental health issues as a political weapon.” The so-called “file note” was initially tabled in November last year when Mr Newman accused Ms Miller of having a grudge against a senior public servant. The premier tabled the justice department file again on Thursday, after Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk asked him, on notice, how he came across the document. “I understand the document (the contents of which are attached) was submitted by a private citizen, who provided an assurance the information provided was correct,” Mr Newman said in his prepared answer. Asked why Mr Newman had originally table the document, his spokesman told AAP: “The reason for tabling the document to which you refer was made clear in parliament on the day (21 November 2013).” He added the premier hadn’t released a medical history file. Ms Palaszczuk is considering whether to refer the matter to the clerk of parliament. “This is a premier who chose to table a member’s personal, medical information under parliamentary privilege,” she told reporters. “It is completely unethical. It says a lot about the character of the man. “If he’s doing it for a member of parliament, he could do it for any private citizen living in Queensland.” The three-page justice department note suggests Ms Miller had a nervous breakdown as she contemplated accepting a voluntary early retirement from her public service job. The note says her husband Neil called Barry Read, the acting executive director of justice programs, to report her “nervous breakdown”. “I asked him what he meant by this and he said that she was in such a state that her parents had to come to look after Jo-Ann and their children,” the file said. In November, the premier told parliament Ms Miller was opposed to Ken Levy heading the former Crime and Misconduct Commission because she had fallen out with him when he was her boss in the justice department.