REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, April 10, 1997

THE Gold Coast woman whose evidence caused Prime Minister John Howard to dump Senator Mal Colston was in hiding.

However, Christine Smith, 51, was hailed by Coast ALP officials as a hero and respected for her “honest and meticulous” work.

Mr Howard called on Senator Colston to resign as Senate Deputy President and referred allegations of travel allowance rorts concerning the Senator to the Australian Federal Police.

His move followed a statement from Mrs Smith in which she retracted an earlier claim that she was to blame for nearly $7000 in unjustified travel claims.

Senator Colston, whose home was staked out by media, was considering Mr Howard’s advice, according to his son, Douglas, in Canberra.

Another son, David, was involved in several clashes with journalists outside Senator Colston’s Chapel Hill home.

Although unavailable for comment, Mrs Smith revealed in a letter to Senate clerk Harry Evans that on March 2, 1997 she offered to Senator Colston, at a late-night meeting at her uncle’s home in Canberra, to take the rap for travel allowance mistakes.

Mrs Smith said she and Senator Colston then drafted a statement laying the blame on her sloppy bookkeeping.

In the latest statement, Mrs Smith said she was not responsible for preparing Senator Colston’s travel allowance claims nor was she required to keep a record of dates of travel for claim purposes.

“The Senator always prepared his own claims,” she said.

Senator Colston resigned in 1999. Mrs Smith later became the Labor MP for Burleigh for 11 years.