Senior cabinet minister Tim Nicholls has declared he wants to keep the notorious health portfolio if the federal police investigation into his embattled colleague Tim Mander forces a reshuffle of Queensland ministers.
Mander, the state’s Olympics minister who has been embroiled in a scandal which resulted in him stepping aside from cabinet on Thursday evening, is awaiting the outcome of the probe into allegations centred on where he was enrolled to vote.
Premier David Crisafulli, who learned of the AFP referral via the media, has dismissed suggestions the ongoing saga would force the LNP premier into his first reshuffle.
But if the government was forced into a change, Nicholls has said he wants to stay on as health minister – a portfolio commonly referred to as a poisoned chalice often given to political rivals.
“I’d like to stay in health, I’ve only just got started in health, so there’s plenty more to do here,” he said on Saturday.
“We are well down the path, and I am enjoying it.”
The Australian Electoral Commission revealed on Thursday that it had referred Mander to federal police based on “an absence of compelling evidence” he was living where he had been enrolled to vote.
Nicholls said it was important that the AFP could conduct their investigation without the commentary of politicians.
“Look, the situation at the moment is a serious situation and the matter has now been put to the Australian Federal Police,” he said.
“I think I would say that obviously there is a great desirability in seeing an outcome in regard to those investigations as soon as possible.”
The comments come as Crisafulli continued to back his Olympics minister, and would not be drawn on broader cabinet reshuffle questions this week.
Crisafulli told reporters on Friday that the minister had assured him “he has been truthful”, but there had been “issues in terms of communication” of the matter, when asked if Mander had lied to the electoral commission.
The premier had learned of the police referral of his own minister after a government staffer alerted him to it when news broke. Mander was on a flight from New Zealand at the time.
State laws allow MPs to be enrolled to vote in their electorate despite not living there. However, federal laws do not, and include criminal offences for providing false or misleading information.
Mander has denied wrongdoing and insisted he made the correct disclosures.
The revelations about the investigation have proved to be a testing time for the Crisafulli government, and came on the back of Mander and Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm being referred to the corruption watchdog over their romantic relationship.
Nicholls said the government has remained focused on its priorities.
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