By Jeremy Sollars
POLICE have confirmed a complaint over comments made by Southern Downs MP Lawrence Springborg when he was Health Minister about the closure of the Barrett Adolescent Centre in Brisbane is under investigation.
In July 2016 Labor’s Bundamba MP Jo-Ann Miller referred Mr Springborg to police over allegations he misled a parliamentary committee on 24 July, 2013, when he said the controversial centre’s closure was “under review”.
Mr Springborg made the comments while he was Health Minister in the former Newman LNP government.
He announced at the weekend he would retire from state politics at the next election, due in January 2018 but an early election in early to mid-2017 is widely tipped.
A report into the closure of the Barrett Centre found Mr Springborg decided to close it during a meeting with the then West Moreton board chair Mary Corbett on 15 July, 2013 – nine days earlier than the budget estimates committee hearing in question on 24 July, 2013.
Ms Miller has accused Mr Springborg of lying to the budget estimates hearing, in that the decision to close the Barrett Centre had already been made.
In July 2016, Ms Miller wrote a letter to Police Commissioner Ian Stewart asking him to launch an investigation.
It is an offence to knowingly give false evidence to parliament or its committees.
Police Media has confirmed the complaint against Mr Springborg is “currently being assessed by State Crime Command“ and there was no further comment.
The Barrett Centre was officially closed in 2014. It was a mental health residential care facility for young people.
The centre was the subject of a commission of inquiry earlier this year, which found Mr Springborg was “poorly advised” about the operation of the centre and that its record-keeping had been inadequate.
Three teenagers – Will Fowell, Talieha Nebauer and Caitlin Wilkinson-Whiticker – took their own lives in the months after the Barrett Centre was closed.
The inquiry also found that communication between staff of the inner Brisbane centre and patients and parents was poor, and that it was “geographically and clinically isolated”.
Mr Springborg told the Free Times he would “look forward to the matter being finalised”.
The veteran Southern Downs MP has served in State Parliament for 27 years and is credited with uniting the Liberal and National Parties in Queensland under the LNP banner.
He was Opposition Leader on three occasions and narrowly lost the leadership by three votes to Tim Nicholls after the LNP’s 2015 State Election defeat by Labor.
Mr Springborg broke the news of his planned retirement to a gathering of local LNP faithful at the Tannymorel Bowls Club east of Warwick on Saturday 3 December, before making a public announcement.
“These are never easy decisions, but I believe that it is the right decision on balance,” he said in a statement released to local media.
“I have been very privileged to be given such an opportunity by the people of Southern Downs, to be their parliamentary representative. The Southern Downs is the place I have always called home and a place where my family have lived and worked for five generations.
“This decision gives a proper and respectful amount of time for those interested in representing the LNP, to talk with their families and put their names forward.
“It also gives a proper amount of time for local party members to select their candidate and the people of Southern Downs to get to know the candidate before the next state election.”
