Member for Darling Range Barry Urban will be taking time off according to a senior ALP figure.
The anonymous source confirmed senior Labor Party members met with Mr Urban at his Jarrahdale residence on Tuesday to discuss his political future after questions had been raised in the media about his background, particularly relating to a service medal Mr Urban wore during official commemorative services.
A medal he later admitted he was not awarded.
The ALP spokesman was quick to quash speculation Mr Urban was about to quit his position as a backbencher with the McGowan Government.
“There is no intention for Barry to resign,” he said.
“He is still a Member of Parliament and he is still the Member for Darling Range.
“Barry’s office has remained open throughout this ordeal and will remain open.”
Mr Urban issued a statement over the weekend outlining his service history, which includes time spent in the UK police force, a deployment to Bosnia for nine months and his time in the West Australian police force where ‘I took no international deployments’ the statement read.
Mr Urban also expressed his embarrassment at the medal mistake.
“I fully understand the offence that it causes to current and past police officers and members of the defence force,” he said.
“I intend to surrender this medal to the Serpentine-Jarrahdale RSL Club and then apply for the correct medal that recognises my deployment.”
According to the ALP spokesman Mr Urban suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, understood to be related to his service, which was also touched upon in the MP’s statement.
It read ‘I myself will be seeking help and would encourage anyone who had been impacted by this to also contact professional counselling for advice.’
Examiner Newspapers and other media outlets received information about Mr Urban’s medals from a source, who did not want to be named.
In the emails the source stated ‘As you know Barry has a history of services in army and police but this medal is for Australian Police who served overseas. He says he served overseas in the British Police but there is no medal and he told another reporter (get this) the British Police sent him the wrong medal. That may change by this afternoon.’
The email source told Examiner Newspapers they had been looking into Mr Urban’s past for some time and had doubts about his military and educational background.
Serpentine Jarrahdale RSL president Ric Giblett said he and the organisation will be watching to see how the situation plays out.
“These types of things happen occasionally and the people involved in these sorts of things need medical help rather than persecution,” he said.
