Neither the Premier or the Treasurer have any sympathy for the Together Union being rapped over the knuckles by the independent Parliamentary Clerk for using footage of Campbell Newman speaking in parliament in their 'broken promises' ad campaign.

The union used Mr Newman speaking in parliament about the need for public service cuts as part of its ad campaign urging the Premier to agree to a higher pay increase for public servants.

But Parliamentary Clerk Neil Laurie wrote to the union on Tuesday requesting it take the ads down, or face being held in contempt.

"The use of the footage in the Together Union's advertisement appears to be a prima facie breach of the conditions of use and may, therefore, be contempt.  I urge you to take immediate action to remove the footage from the advertisement," he said in a letter to the union.

Union Secretary Alex Scott accused the parliament of attempting to "bully" the public sector.

"The threatening of contempt charges against the union in relation to an ad which only crime is to show what Campbell Newman said to parliament two years ago in relation to job cuts is a further example in relation to how this government is seeking to bully and intimidate any opposition and silence any criticism of the government," he said.

"This parliament has clearly got its priorities wrong.

"It should be focussing on the lies the Premier told to the Queensland Parliament and the Queensland community about public sector wages last week, rather than seeking to use the threat of fines and imprisonment to try and stop workers from putting to air television ads."

The LNP was made to take down ads which used footage of former Premier Anna Bligh speaking in parliament during the 2012 election campaign.

Treasurer Tim Nicholls said if the LNP had to abide by the rules, so did unions.

"What I think is there are rules which are clearly understood by everyone – they apply, not only to unions, they apply to media outlets, they apply to political organisations. What I think most people would expect is that unions abide by the rules which are clearly understood by everyone else," he said.

"Mr Scott has been delaying a pay rise for his members for over a year now.

"The government has made an offer for a CPI increase, we've made numerous attempts to get this matter resolved, Mr Scott for his own political purposes is refusing to do so and he should also understand that there are rules in relation to the use of material in parliament – they apply to all of us – why can't a union boss comply with the rules that apply to everyone else?"

Mr Newman agreed.

"They were shut down," Mr Newman said of the LNP ads.

"You know that's the point here, they were shut down. And the party respected the independent call of Mr Neil Laurie, the Clerk of the Parliament."

Both the Speaker's office and Mr Laurie declined to comment.