Release TasTAFE audit, Libs urged

THE Tasmanian public should be told what information the audit of TasTAFE has revealed before the upcoming State Election, University of Tasmania experts say.

The State Government has been accused of backflipping on its commitment to release the first of four audit reports into TasTAFE.

The 12-month audit follows an Integrity Commission investigation dubbed Operation Black which detailed nepotism and Tasmanian Government Card misuse in the organisation and is due to be completed in June.

University of Tasmania information expert Rick Snell said it would be concerning if the recommendations were not released before the poll.

“In and of itself, without any other justification, it just seems to be a delaying mechanism to take this past an election process,” Associate Professor Snell said.

“Even if that’s not the case, it leaves itself open to that interpretation. There’s a plethora of different access possibilities that the minister could have satisfied, rather than just putting it all into one [report] and keeping it for 12 months.”

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff last week said he had received the first report, in- cluding 25 recommendations, but would not release it as the audit process was ongoing.

This week, Mr Rockliff said the Government was “doing exactly what we said we would — providing a quarterly update”. But in a media release from early last month, Mr Rockliff said: “The first quarter of the independent audit into TasTAFE is expected to be finalised shortly and the Government will release the audit as well as the Government’s response in coming weeks.”

UTAS corporate governance expert Tom Baxter said Mr Rockliff had clearly reneged on his commitment.

“The minister reversed his position over three weeks in September and has broken a promise made to all TasTAFE staff,” Dr Baxter said.

“What’s changed in three weeks? Given the Integrity Commission’s serious findings, TasTAFE staff and the public deserve more of the transparency they were promised. And something substantive before the State election, not after.”

Interim TasTAFE chairwoman Nicola Morris yesterday said the TasTAFE board did not believe it was appropriate to make the quarterly reports publicly available.

She said it would be appropriate to release the report after the recommendations were implemented.