“Reporting around this issue has been misleading and is damaging. In response it’s important to note: DFW is not part owned by the Queensland government Deputy Premier," DWF AsiaPac Australian Chairman Mark Hickey said. "It is a global legal business with over 300 principals around the world, of whom Damien van Brunschot is just one. "The fees DWF receives as a result of the current WorkCover relationship are consistent with those earned in prior years and under previous governments." LNP deputy leader Tim Mander said Ms Trad already earned $360,000 per year and she should tell voters how much she benefited from the law firm's state government contracts. "She is a beneficiary of the work that they [DWF Australia] receive through state government contracts," he said.

"What we really need to know is the extent of the benefit that Jackie Trad gets. Loading "Yes, she has declared it, but she has not openly talked about how much money she receives from these [state] government contracts. "Annastacia Palaszczuk should have shown leadership weeks ago and sacked Jackie Trad." A spokesman for the Deputy Premier's office said Mr van Brunschot had worked for WorkCover Queensland since before he married Ms Trad, something later echoed by Mr van Brunschot, who said he had represented WorkCover since the late 1990s.

"The Deputy Premier’s Register of Interests has reflected her husband’s legal practice since she was first elected to parliament in 2012," the spokesman said. "The Deputy Premier’s husband has provided legal services to Workcover for more than two decades, since before he and the Deputy Premier were married. "At all times, the Deputy Premier has removed herself from any government decisions involving WorkCover to avoid any actual or perceived conflict of interest." Mr Hickey said several of DWF’s principals provided WorkCover services as part of a team of about 30. "Damien van Brunschot is among the leading experts in this specialist area of law, and as such along with other colleagues has provided services to the statutory authority since the late nineties under successive Queensland governments," he said.

Ms Trad has come under intense fire in recent weeks in relation to the purchase of a $695,500 property near a proposed Cross River Rail station, a project for which she had ministerial responsibility, and failing to declare it on her registered interests within the required time frame. Loading The LNP and Ms Trad have both referred the issue to the Crime and Corruption Commission, which is considering whether to launch a formal probe. It was later revealed Ms Trad personally called CCC chair Alan MacSporran as a "courtesy" one day before referring herself to the body. The handwritten note of that conversation was released after Ms Trad was grilled during budget estimates hearings over her family company VBT Investments' purchase of the house.