Premier Must Explain Shelton’s Legal Fees

In Parliament on Thursday, the Greens asked the Premier if Mr Shelton had received any taxpayer support for legal costs, and if so how much. We were pleased to receive an answer – Mr Shelton has had $15,000 of taxpayers’ money spent on lawyers between 1 January 2023 and 7 April 2025. 

The confirmation of these significant legal payments begs the obvious question – what for? What possible reason could there be for a backbencher to need lawyers’ services funded out of the public purse? 

These questions were put to both Mr Shelton and Premier Jeremy Rockliff by media on Friday. While Mr Shelton immediately fled his press conference without answering, the Premier committed to providing an explanation. 

When asked by the media what Mr Shelton’s legal fees were related to, the Premier said “Well, I’ll have to get some information for you.” When next asked if the fees were related to official business, the Premier responded with “I’ll get that information for you”.

That has not happened. 

It’s troubling to see Jeremy Rockliff commit to providing public interest information about public money, and then fail to deliver that information. If the Premier wants his word to mean something, he should come out today with a full explanation. 

Failing to explain this situation would put a cloud over Jeremy Rockliff’s integrity. It also leads to the question of whether it was appropriate for Mr Shelton to receive this legal support at all. And it raises serious questions about the Liberal government’s approach to paying legal costs for MPs more generally. 

As it stands, current practice is that Cabinet alone decides whether funding is provided to pay MPs’ legal costs.

If the Liberal Cabinet is happy to sign off on taxpayer funding to cover the legal costs of a taxpayer, without explaining how the costs could possibly relate to the MP’s official duties, what confidence should we have that Cabinet’s decisions to pay the legal bills for other Liberal MPs have been above-board?