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Qld Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman had a kiddie-porn offender on her office payroll

Child Safety minister Shannon Fentiman says she had no idea a convicted kiddie-porn offender was working in her office.

Child Safety minister Shannon Fentiman says she had no idea a convicted kiddie-porn offender was working in her office. ABC Stefan Lowe

Queensland’s Child Safety minister Shannon Fentiman says she is “horrified” a man with child pornography convictions was working in her electorate office.

Hayden Joel Schofield was asked to resign from his position as an assistant electorate officer on October 28 when the clerk of the Queensland Parliament was made aware of his criminal history.

Ms Fentiman said Mr Schofield had worked in the office for less than a month, and was not in a position to access material related to the child safety portfolio.

Ms Fentiman said she asked the man to resign on the day she found out about his convictions.

“I was completely shocked and horrified as everyone else,” she said.

“Clearly what this shows is a significant gap in the policies and procedures of the Queensland Parliament.”

Ms Fentiman said that as a result of the incident, the clerk had updated HR policies to require criminal history checks.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the incident was “a matter for the clerk”, and said she was glad criminal background checks would be undertaken for electorate staff.

“No-one wants to see that happening in any workplace,” she said of the incident.

Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls said the incident was “not a good look” for the State Government.

“The real question is what did the Premier know about this? Someone who’s sacked the day before the election, and we find out three weeks later,” he said.

Electorate office staff are employed by the Parliament, not political parties.

However the staff are often hand-picked and have links to parties.

Mr Schofield, who was convicted in 2011, has links to the Labor party which date back to at least 2013 and has a political campaigning background.

In 2013, he was listed online as being a member of the Toowoomba Young Labor branch.

Last year he worked for a former Labor federal election candidate.

He was also listed as having worked for a Queensland union, and he was personally thanked by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad in a parliamentary speech in 2015.

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