Matthew Hughes (born 9 February 1950) is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor member of the

Western Australian Legislative Assembly The Western Australian Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of Western Australia, an Australian state. The Parliament sits in Parliament House in the Western Australian capital, Perth. The Legisla ...

since the 2017 state election, representing Kalamunda. Hughes was born in Audenshaw in the

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, and moved to Australia in 1979. He was a teacher and the principal of

John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School (commonly abbreviated as JSRACS or JSR) is an Independent school, independent Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Mixed-sex education, co-educational Primary school, primary and Secondary education# ...

, and also served on Swan City Council.

Controversy and bullying claims

In April 2020, Hughes was called on to resign from the Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission by Liberal leader

Liza Harvey Liza Mary Harvey (née Browne; born 25 October 1966) is an Australian politician who was the Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 2008 to 2021, representing the seat of Scarborough. She was a minister in t ...

and

Nick Goiran Nicolas Pierre Goiran (born 15 October 1977) is an Australian politician who has been a member for the South Metropolitan Region of the Western Australian Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of the Parliament of Western Australia, since ...

after posting comments on

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that broke the confidentiality of parliamentary committees. Harvey accused Hughes of breaking the

Chatham House Rule Under the Chatham House Rule, anyone who comes to a meeting is free to use information from the discussion, but is not allowed to reveal who made any particular comment. It is designed to increase openness of discussion. The rule is a system for h ...

nature of all parliamentary committees and damaging the integrity of the parliamentary committee process. Hughes decided to attack the Liberal Party in his defence, despite the fact that a member of the

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was voting with the Liberal Party in the committee. In March 2021, prior to the 2021 Western Australia state election, Hughes was accused of bullying by three former staff members. Later in March 2021, further claims from these three former staff members were published that detailed Hughes verbally abusing staff, punching objects in the office to startle staff, and the toxic environment. These accusations led to the

Community and Public Sector Union CPSU, the Community and Public Sector Union (more commonly known as the CPSU) is a national trade union in Australia. The union came into existence on 1 July 1994 with the amalgamation of the Public Sector, Professional, Scientific, Research, T ...

asking the Department of Premier and Cabinet to better educate Members of Parliament on how to treat their staff. The women involved in the complaint said they had been let down by Premier Mark McGowan, who defended Hughes by saying he was a decent man. After the election, McGowan promoted Hughes to the Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on the Corruption and Crime Commission. In late June 2021, complaints about Hughes emerged again, this time from a former student of

about the conduct of Hughes when he was principal there. The former student alleged that she was sexually assaulted as a 13 year old by a student who was 4 years older than her, and that as principal of the school, Hughes did nothing to help and that the school took no steps to create a safe environment for her after she reported three incidents, including one on school grounds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Matthew 1950 births Living people Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Western Australia Members of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly Western Australian schoolteachers English emigrants to Australia People from Audenshaw 21st-century Australian politicians Western Australian local councillors