Qld Labor leader to face ethics committee

Queensland's opposition leader has been referred to the ethics committee for misleading parliament.

Speaker Fiona Simpson says Labor leader Annastacia Palaszczuk deliberately misled parliament when speaking about the number of workers sacked by the state government in her budget reply speech in June.

Ms Palaszczuk told the house at the time: "I rise on behalf of the 20,000 workers who were sacked after being told their jobs were safe."

However, a Liberal National Party MP later provided evidence that the number of workers who took part in the government's voluntary redundancy plan was actually 9200.

Ms Simpson said the opposition leader told her the figure of 20,000 included estimated changes to other sectors of the workforce outside of the public service.

"There is prima facie evidence of the statements being deliberately misleading," the Speaker told parliament on Thursday.

"The process of asking for a response allows members the opportunity to correct the record if they have been inadvertently misleading."

"There has been no correction and so I find this requires the further consideration of the committee."

Ms Simpson referred the matter to the Ethics Committee, which will report back to the house at a later date.