A Queensland political candidate has revealed his party’s proposed laws to allow lethal force against home intruders could have seriously injured him, after admitting to his criminal past.
Michael Pugh, the Katter’s Australia Party candidate for the seat of Mundingburra in Townsville, disclosed he was charged with breaking and entering and stealing in the early 2000s.
“I went on somewhat of a path of poor decisions which, fortunately for me, led to a circuit-breaker moment, and then on to a path of redemption” he told reporters yesterday.
“I want to be seen as totally transparent.”
Queensland party leader Robbie Katter said Pugh has the full support of the Katters behind him.
Pugh’s criminal past has not deterred him from supporting one of the party’s major policy proposals known as Castle Law.
The law would give victims of home invasions the right to use “whatever force necessary” to protect themselves and others within their home against intruders.
However, Pugh conceded if the policy had been law during the period of his offences he may have been seriously injured.
“I support Castle Law but, to be brutally honest, I’m probably very fortunate that Castle Law wasn’t in at the time or I may not be here today to be a father or to tell you my story,” Pugh said.
Pugh’s disclosure of prior offences follows allegations of corrupt conduct against Townsville mayor Troy Thompson who is accused of misleading voters about his army service.
There’s been a lot of news this year about Olympic and Paralympic venues.
The original plans to redevelop the Gabba were scuppered, and ideas to build something new at Victoria Park were floated – before the state government threw its support behind the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.
Robyn Littlewood, the chief executive of Health and Wellbeing Queensland.
But are we missing a chance to focus on another kind of lasting legacy?
Dr Robyn Littlewood, the chief executive of Health and Wellbeing Queensland, says Brisbane should seize this moment to invest in the future health and wellbeing of its people, and to project its values on a global stage.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has again defended his management of the scheme amid fraud revelations, calling the Liberal Party “a human blame factory” for criticising the government’s handling when they administered the scheme only a few years ago.
In a fiery late-night budget estimates hearing on Monday, NDIS head of fraud and integrity John Dardo said at least 5 per cent of the scheme – more than $2 billion – was being spent in error. He said examples of the waste included NDIS funding being spent on holidays worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Minister for the NDIS and Government Services Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Speaking this morning on Today, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said that news was “very troubling”.
“And by money being wasted, it means that we’re not spending the money on those who are most in need,” he said.
“Don’t forget that Bill was the architect [of the scheme] … in the Gillard government. When we were in government, we tried to change some of the settings. The Labor Party completely refused to support that. Bill has now been the minister for two years and, as we saw in that train wreck interview with Ally Langdon on Current Affair the other night, Bill doesn’t have a clue. So he’s chasing his tail at the moment.”
Here’s what Shorten said in response, edited for length and clarity:
Well, first of all, with what Peter said, you know, it’s pretty cute this… The Liberal Party of Australia is the human blame factory. It’s never their fault. Apparently, when I was in opposition the NDIS was my fault and now, in government, it’s still my fault.
I tell you what, the NDIS is changing lives and this is the first thing you’ve always got to say. There’s hundreds of thousands of people who are being helped by the scheme. There’s hundreds of thousands of great workers. But unfortunately the scheme hasn’t been sufficiently scrutinised at the back end. So in the last two years I’ve doubled the number of investigators…
We acknowledge that it is doing good as well as some of the scandals we’ve seen, and we’ll just clean up the dirt.
Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has defended the party against heated accusations, levelled in parliament against it this week, that the party has spread misinformation and stirred up social disharmony by supporting pro-Palestine protests.
On ABC Radio National this morning, the Queensland MP was first asked whether anti-Israel protests in Australia had crossed the line.
Max Chandler-Mather, Greens MP for Griffith.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Well, of course, we don’t support any protests with things like bricks,” Chandler-Mather said. “What we support is peaceful protest. And again, what this the government was doing this week was attempting to distract from the fact that it has not taken a single material action to put pressure on Israel to stop its war in Gaza.”
Chandler-Mather then criticised Australian media for focusing more on domestic protests instead of the deaths of 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Israel’s invasion began in response to Hamas’ attack on October 7. That surprise attack killed 1200 Israelis.
“I would argue that more ink has been spilled, and more airtime has been given, to a small few protests than the fact that there is a historic [genocide] going on in Gaza, right now,” he said.
Responding to the Labor government’s allegation the Greens were causing social disharmony, Chandler-Mather said: “What is causing social unrest is the Australian government is only using weasel words, when they should be using action to put pressure on Israel to stop its genocide in Gaza.”
Later, he said: “This isn’t some student politics forum. They are the Australian government. They have the power to cancel two-way arms trade with Israel.”
A Queensland political candidate has revealed his party’s proposed laws to allow lethal force against home intruders could have seriously injured him, after admitting to his criminal past.
Michael Pugh, the Katter’s Australia Party candidate for the seat of Mundingburra in Townsville, disclosed he was charged with breaking and entering and stealing in the early 2000s.
“I went on somewhat of a path of poor decisions which, fortunately for me, led to a circuit-breaker moment, and then on to a path of redemption” he told reporters yesterday.
“I want to be seen as totally transparent.”
Queensland party leader Robbie Katter said Pugh has the full support of the Katters behind him.
Pugh’s criminal past has not deterred him from supporting one of the party’s major policy proposals known as Castle Law.
The law would give victims of home invasions the right to use “whatever force necessary” to protect themselves and others within their home against intruders.
However, Pugh conceded if the policy had been law during the period of his offences he may have been seriously injured.
“I support Castle Law but, to be brutally honest, I’m probably very fortunate that Castle Law wasn’t in at the time or I may not be here today to be a father or to tell you my story,” Pugh said.
Pugh’s disclosure of prior offences follows allegations of corrupt conduct against Townsville mayor Troy Thompson who is accused of misleading voters about his army service.
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