Call for inquiry after information leak

An independent inquiry is the only way to find out if other senior media advisers to Premier Colin Barnett were involved in leaking false information to the media about new Labor Leader Mark McGowan, the State Opposition says.

James Larsson, who was on an estimated salary of more than $100,000 before he resigned yesterday, sent a text message to journalists on January 16, telling them Mr McGowan was at a pub.

Mr McGowan was at home with his three young children at the time and had to put his children on the phone to talk to journalists to prove that he was at home.

Mr Larsson also sent an email to journalists with photographs of Mr McGowan’s $1.4 million Rockingham house, questioning whether Mr McGowan was the working-class family man he portrayed himself to be.

Mr Barnett described Mr Larsson actions as “silly” and a breach of his standards, and told him last Friday he no longer had a place in his office.

Mr Larsson resigned yesterday morning, but shadow treasurer Ben Wyatt said there were still unanswered questions.

He said it was not known who else may have known about Mr Larsson’s actions, including his superiors in the Premier’s office.

“The Premier’s actions, while strong in respect to Mr Larsson, raise a bunch of other questions about who else within his office was involved,” he said.

Mr Wyatt said he wanted to know why the Liberal Party continued with its campaign about the value of Mr McGowan’s house over the weekend if Mr Larsson was acting alone.

He said it was in the public interest to undertake a Public Sector Commission inquiry into the matter and would write to the commission about it.

Mr Wyatt said he was “astounded” that Mr Barnett said he was not concerned about the text messages but considered only the email to be crossing the line.

“This is a senior staff member of the premier, who the Premier has now dismissed, sending out lies,” he said.

“I want to know, and I think the public would like to know, how far up the chain in the Premier’s office this goes.”

Mr Wyatt said the fact there were other people from Mr Barnett’s office at the pub when the text message was sent raised questions about the incident.

“The Premier doesn’t want to talk about the text message, he knows other members of his own staff were involved that’s why the Public Sector Commission, an independent body, an independent person, needs to investigate this issue,” he said.

“There is a code of ethics that apply to all ministerial staff and we need to know whether anybody else in the Premier’s office has possibly breached that code.”

However, Mr Barnett said there would be no Public Sector Commission inquiry.

“There is no need for it. I’m not going to waste tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money on something to appease the Labor Party,” he said.

Mr Barnett said in terms of wrongdoing, the offence was at the lower end.

“James Larsson did a silly thing. He has paid a very high price, he has lost his job, he has left the Government. That’s it,” he said.