PC MHA Barry Petten says he accepts the findings in the Commissioner for Legislative Standards’ report into a potential conflict of interest involving the Premier.
The report has found no evidence that Premier Andrew Furey did anything wrong when he went on a luxury fishing trip to a lodge owned by World Energy GH2 director John Risley.
Barry Petten pushed for answers about the fishing trip during the fall sitting of the legislature, and when Furey refused to table receipts for the trip he asked the commissioner to look into it.
Petten says the issue was never to find the Premier guilty of something; it was about asking pertinent questions in the House of Assembly, and when those weren’t answered he had “no choice” but to go to the commissioner.
He believes the issue will be one of Furey’s “legacy points,” noting that it baffles his mind that the Premier let the issue “drag on” when the air could have been cleared when the questions were asked.
