{"id":684806,"date":"2026-05-21T08:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684806\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T08:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T08:42:08","slug":"queensland-olympics-minister-tim-mander-stands-down-from-cabinet-position-after-afp-referral-queensland-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/684806\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland Olympics minister Tim Mander stands down from cabinet position after AFP referral | Queensland politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland\u2019s embattled Olympics Games minister, Tim Mander, has stepped aside, after being referred to the Australian federal police over claims he may have committed a \u201cpotential criminal offence\u201d when he allegedly enrolled to vote at a staffer\u2019s home address last year without living there.<\/p>\n

Mander, the sport and Olympics minister, has been under intensifying political pressure in recent weeks, since The Australian reported<\/a> allegations that he registered to vote at the home of an electorate officer in Brisbane\u2019s northern suburbs.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent late Thursday, Mander said he had \u201ctotal confidence this will be resolved\u201d and Labor\u2019s attacks disproved\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I have no intention of this becoming a distraction to the important work of the Government and so this afternoon I advised the Premier I am standing aside today as Minister while this is being sorted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mander said he had \u201creferred this matter myself (to the Australian electoral commission) and provided information as requested, so it could be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have followed the right processes and all appropriate declarations and disclosures have been made.<\/p>\n

New reports had questioned whether Mander had ever lived at the address.<\/p>\n

The Labor deputy opposition leader, Cameron Dick, on Thursday called on Premier David Crisafulli to stand Mander down from the ministry while the allegations were investigated.<\/p>\n

Mander, a former NRL referee and Scripture Union chief executive has denied wrongdoing and told parliament last week he had complied with electoral laws \u201cat all times\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Thursday, the Australian Electoral Commission said it had conducted an assessment of the matter, which had included providing Mander with an opportunity to provide information to support its enrolment claim.<\/p>\n

The statement said electoral authorities \u201chad not yet made a determination\u201d about the matter but that that the AEC \u201cdoes consider that there is currently an absence of compelling evidence to determine Mr Mander resided at the enrolled address\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs such, on 19 May the AEC referred this matter to the AFP for their consideration, and any action they consider appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The AEC\u2019s statement said the matters in question \u201cconcern a potential criminal offence under the Criminal Code Act 1995\u201d and that meant it was appropriate it be handled by the AFP.<\/p>\n

Under electoral law, voters are only eligible for enrolment at an address if they have lived there for more than a month. The criminal code includes potential penalties for giving false or misleading information.<\/p>\n

Mander gave a statement to parliament about his enrolment on 21 April.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is public knowledge that I had a marriage separation over a year ago, and many who have experienced similar circumstances would understand the uncertainty that can follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this period I am fortunate that I had friends to whom I could turn for support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI updated the Electoral Commission of Queensland with my correct details when my circumstances changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am currently enrolled at my permanent address and I have complied with the requirements of the Electoral Commission of Queensland at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put this matter to rest, I have written to the Electoral Commissioner of Queensland to affirm that I have followed the appropriate processes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland\u2019s embattled Olympics Games minister, Tim Mander, has stepped aside, after being referred to the Australian federal police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-684806","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\/684806","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=684806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}