POLLIE STAFF COST HIT
Government forced to find an extra $3.2 million
THE State Government has been forced to pull an extra $3.2 million from the coffers for unbudgeted costs associated with ministerial, electorate and opposition offices, including payouts to people who left their jobs after the March state election.
Documents tabled in Parliament last week reveal Treasurer Peter Gutwein signed off on millions of dollars in funding outside the budget in the June quarter, including almost $900,000 for legal advice relating to Basslink and an additional $98,000 related to the Government’s power bill compensation scheme.
The more than $3 million in extra ministerial and parliamentary support costs included about $870,000 in post-election payouts to 36 people working across all political parties.
This included former Liberal media adviser Martine Haley, who resigned after trolling Angela Williamson and received a severance payment worth up to $45,000.
Also in the bill was a payout of up to $65,000 for the Premier’s former chief of staff, Brad Stansfield.
A government spokesman said those payouts — which went to eligible employees of all parties who did not renew their contracts or moved back to the public service — had been provided in accordance with each individual’s contract.
He said the extra office funding also reflected requests from Labor and the Greens for more cash.
But Labor’s spending scrutiny committee chairwoman Jen Butler accused the Government of shifting the blame.
“[Premier] Will Hodgman must explain how he now requires an additional $3.2 million for ministerial offices, and he cannot attempt to shift responsibility for these new costs to opposition parties where staffing expenses have not increased significantly since the election,” Ms Butler said.
State Growth successfully requested an extra $885,000 for the Energy Security Cabinet Committee to receive independent legal advice from consultants relating to Basslink.
The Government has entered arbitration with the cable operator after demanding millions of dollars over a sixmonth outage that had diesel generators shipped into the state.
“The committee sought advice from expert consultants on a number of issues. This was independent of advice sought by Hydro Tasmania,” the state government spokesman said.
The Government’s extra funding for the energy bonus scheme, which had $125 paid to concession card holders, reflected payments to eligible people who did not hold Aurora Energy accounts, the spokesman said. This would include people who live in a nursing home.
Ms Butler accused the Government of a “complete and shameless lack of transparency and openness”.
“Premier Hodgman and his Treasurer went to the March state election with what they claimed were costed commitments only to betray Tasmanians within six months,” she said.
The June quarter Return Under Section 19 of the Public Account Act document said that the approval of additional funding could include a transfer of funding, or refer to costs offset elsewhere, meaning it did not always affect the budget.