Mark Parton, leader of the opposition Liberal Party in the Australian Capital Territory, admitted to sending a text message during a parliamentary budget estimates hearing in July that said, "fuck, my job is boring" followed by "Wanna swap" along with a photo of the committee meeting [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].
The hearing concerned plans to redevelop Telstra Tower in consultation with the Ngunnawal Indigenous community [2].
An anonymous complaint alleged Parton had sent the text to a sex worker, but Parton denied this and chose not to disclose the recipient's identity [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. He said at a press conference he would "not entertain questions that are completely removed from that... I'm just not going there" [2].
The Legislative Assembly's standards commissioner dismissed the complaint without launching an investigation. Parton explained the commissioner's options to not investigate include lack of evidence, frivolousness, or political motivation [2].
Parton defended his texting during hearings by calling himself "a multi-tasker from hell" and saying, "there’s a hell of a lot of private messages that are sent from a hell of a lot of people in the context of sitting days and hearings" [1].
He described his communication style as "off-the-cuff" and "larrikin," adding, "I understand that most people's perception of budget estimates hearings is that they're pretty boring" [2, 4, 5].
Following the complaint, Parton reported it as a harassment matter to the police [4, 5].
The dismissal of the complaint and Parton's police report were confirmed during a press conference on August 6, 2026 [4, 5].
