{"id":648854,"date":"2026-05-04T10:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648854\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T10:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:59:10","slug":"queensland-government-in-integrity-crisis-over-alleged-undisclosed-affair-between-two-ministers-opposition-says-queensland-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648854\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland government in \u2018integrity crisis\u2019 over alleged undisclosed affair between two ministers, opposition says | Queensland politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland\u2019s opposition has accused the LNP government<\/a> of being in an \u201cintegrity crisis\u201d over an allegedly undisclosed affair between two ministers and has urged the government to show how the pair are avoiding conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

But one prominent political commentator has warned Labor\u2019s attack strategy may backfire \u2013 saying the issue \u201cwould not even make the list of things to be tested in the pub\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

The Olympic Games minister, Tim Mander, and the child safety minister, Amanda Camm, both issued statements over the weekend giving a timeline to a \u201cpersonal relationship\u201d that began in June 2023 \u2013 while the LNP was in opposition \u2013 and ended in May 2024. Both said they were \u201ccategorically not in a relationship\u201d when sworn in as ministers after the LNP was voted into government in late 2024.<\/p>\n

Mander said that, after separating from his wife in April 2025, he and Camm \u201creconnected\u201d in June 2025 and \u201cour relationship began\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately sought advice from the Integrity Commissioner and the Clerk of the parliament and made all the necessary declarations in line with that advice and the Ministerial Code of Conduct,\u201d Mander said.<\/p>\n

The code obliges ministers to declare personal relationships within a month of being sworn in or whenever their circumstances changed \u201cgiving rise to a potential conflict of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the timeline was called into question by media reports over the weekend of a letter, seen by Guardian Australia, from Mander\u2019s sister-in-law to the premier, David Crisafulli<\/a>, last July, which claimed Mander and Camm had been in a relationship for at least the past two years.<\/p>\n

That would mean a period of about eight months during which Mander and Camm were government ministers in an undeclared relationship. During that time, the Crisafulli government moved 2032 Olympic sailing from Brisbane\u2019s Moreton Bay to the Whitsundays \u2013 or from Mander\u2019s portfolio to Camm\u2019s electorate.<\/p>\n

The Australian, which broke the story, described the affair the \u201cfirst major ministerial accountability scandal to hit\u201d the Crisafulli government.<\/p>\n

Deputy opposition leader Cameron Dick described Mander and Camm\u2019s timeline of their relationship as \u201cjust a bit too cute\u201d and \u201cjust a bit too convenient\u201d on Monday, likening it to a famous on again off again relationship of an American sitcom.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Crisafulli\u2019s integrity crisis went from a blaze to a bushfire yesterday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Crisafulli wants Queenslanders to believe that Tim Mander and Amanda Camm are the Ross and Rachel of his government.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is buying any of this. This isn\u2019t an episode of Friends. These are two ministers responsible for the expenditure of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dick called on the premier to release the integrity advice and conflict of interest management plans in relation to his two ministers.<\/p>\n

But associate professor at Griffith University and longstanding Queensland political commentator, Paul Williams, said he felt Labor was \u201cbarking up the wrong opposition tree here\u201d.<\/p>\n

There \u201cmay have been a lack of procedure followed\u201d with Mander and Camm\u2019s relationship, he said, and it was \u201cnot unreasonable\u201d to raise questions about moving the Olympic sailing.<\/p>\n

But that would have been a cabinet, rather than ministerial decision, Williams said. And while voters \u201chated\u201d scandals involving \u201cpollies with their hands in the trough\u201d \u2013 this \u201cwas clearly not that\u201d.<\/p>\n

Most voters, he said, would either believe the Mander and Camm affair to be a private matter or simply not care about it, being more focused on what the government was doing to address the housing and cost of living crises.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the attack that\u2019s going to be effective,\u201d Williams said. \u201cNot: \u2018let\u2019s pick on two LNP ministers who might be in love\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland\u2019s opposition has accused the LNP government of being in an \u201cintegrity crisis\u201d over an allegedly undisclosed affair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-648854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}