The federal Liberal candidate for the Longman byelection would have signed off on a biography falsely claiming he held a prestigious military medal, a committee has heard.
Trevor Ruthenberg, a former MP in the Newman LNP government, has apologised for wrongly stating in his 2012 Queensland parliamentary biography he held the Australian Service Medal. In fact, he holds the Australian Defence Medal.
At a budget estimates hearing on Tuesday, MPs heard Mr Ruthenberg would have had to double check the biography before it went up on the state parliament website.
Clerk of Parliament Neil Laurie confirmed on Tuesday Mr Ruthenberg would have had to enter the information when he first entered parliament and then double check it before publication.
"We don't publish anything until we send back to the member the first version or the amended versions and they sign off on it," Mr Laurie said.
LNP members of the committee tried to have the question ruled out of order but were overruled by the chair, Labor MP Linus Power.
In Longman, where voters go to the polls on Saturday, Mr Ruthenberg is polling ahead of Labor's Susan Lamb 51 per cent to 49 per cent in the latest poll.
The by election was called after it was discovered Ms Lamb, who held the seat, was forced to vacate it for holding dual citizenship in breach of the constitution.
Share
