December 6, 2023
Mal Brough, the federal LNP member for Fisher in Queensland, has announced that he will not be contesting this year’s election.
Brough, 54, first entered parliament as the member for Longman, also in Queensland, at the 1996 federal election. He was re-elected in 1998, 2001 and 2004 but was defeated at the 2007 election.
He re-entered the House of Representatives as the member for Fisher at the 2013 election, after winning preselection in 2012. The then sitting member for Fisher was Peter Slipper, who had left the Liberal National Party after he accepted the Speakership from the Gillard government in 2011. Slipper and Brough came into conflict over James Ashby and a police investigation is proceeding into whether Brough and Ashby broke the law in relation to access to the former Speaker’s official diary.
Mal Brough has announced that he has resigned from the Turnbull ministry.
Brough said he had been advised by the Federal Police that their enquiries into the Slipper-Ashby affair may takes “several more months”.
Brough stood aside as Special Minister of State and Minister for Defence Materiel and Science on December 29, 2015. He cited the police investigation as the reason.
Jamie Briggs, the Minister for Cities and the Built Environment, resigned on the same day, in the wake of allegations about his personal behaviour.
Today’s announcement comes as Prime Minister Turnbull is reshuffling his ministry to take account of Andrew Robb’s retirement and Barnaby Joyce’s accession to the leadership of The Nationals, following the retirement of Warren Truss.
This is the revised Turnbull ministry, released today.
If follows the resignation of Jamie Briggs and the standing aside of Mal Brough.
Brough’s duties as Minister for Defence Materiel and Science have been assumed by the Defence Minister, Senator Marise Payne. The Finance Minister, Senator Mathias Cormann, has taken over as Special Minister of State.
Brigg’s duties as Minister for Cities and the Built Environment have been taken on the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt.
Graham Perrett, the federal Labor member for Moreton, has referred information from the Federal Court decision on the Peter Slipper-James Ashby sexual harassment case to the Australian Federal Police.
In his letter, Perrett says Mal Brough, Christopher Pyne, Julie Bishop, Mark McArdle, James Ashby and Karen Doane “may have committed criminal offences in relation to their participation in a political conspiracy designed to harm the Honourable Peter Slipper MP and the Federal Government”.
The text and PDF version of Perrett’s letter appear below.