Advertising executive, political advisor and very close friend of B&T‘s Dee Madigan has found herself in a spot of bother having posted a cheeky tweet about a Queensland senator.
Back in May, Madigan posted a tweet likening the behaviour of Queensland Member for Kawana Jarrod Bleijie to that of a toddler and accompanied the tweet with a clip of Bleijie ripping up pieces of paper in parliament.
Your taxes at work. A toddler tantrum for @JarrodBleijieMP https://t.co/bSjhGRCyIz
— Dee Madigan (@deemadigan) May 10, 2018
In June, Madigan was referred to Parliament’s ethics committee and had requests from the Opposition, the Clerk of Parliament and the Speaker’s office to delete the tweet.
Madigan did not.
In fact, she reposted it.
Hey @JarrodBleijieMP my tweet is still up :)
— Dee Madigan (@deemadigan) December 10, 2018
According to Queensland law, content filmed in court “must only be used for the purposes of fair and accurate reports of proceedings”, not satirised or ridiculed as Madigan is accused of doing.
Madigan may now find herself in contempt of court, though parliament found the breach to be “relatively minor”.
Now, B&T asks the woman herself what exactly happened, if her cheeky tweeting will continue.
So, was it a particularly scandalous tweet? Apparently not.
“No,” Madigan explained.
“It’s the sort of thing that gets tweeted all the time. Jarrod Bleijie himself has tweeted parliamentary footage with commentary.
“I believe his complaint against me was politically motivated because I was the creative director on the Qld Labor Campaign that kicked his govt out of office.”
In terms of how the court notified her she was in trouble with the court, Madigan said: “I got a phone call from the speaker of the house and then numerous emails from the clerk of courts.
“The first one actually began: I understand that you are a contracted campaigner of the Labor Party, Queensland Division…
“That’s why I believe it was politically motivated.”
Asked whether the incident made the Queensland government seem a little out of touch, Madigan disagreed.
“The Queensland government is not out of touch, just a few people who work for the government who should have seen this was an arcane rule that should have been ignored rather than wasting people’s time on this process.
“I never find myself in trouble with the courts before because the other courts have changed their rules on this,” Madigan said.
She added: “Liberal politicians don’t like me because I’m good at my job. I’m ok with that.”
“And yes, I will continue to tweet as I do!”
