SURPRISE TOWNS WE MOST WANT TO VISIT
A REPORT highlighting the need to reform Tasmania’s transparency and oversight mechanisms must prompt action, opposition parties say.
An Australia Institute report, Good Government in Tasmania, has called for a suite of improvements to the laws governing electoral donations, Right to Information requests and the state’s Integrity Commission.
Labor shadow attorneygeneral Ella Haddad said the report addressed a culture of secrecy familiar to political observers. “Everything in the report points to what we know. Tasmania under this government lacks transparency, lacks honesty, and lacks integrity,” she said.
“Under this government, we’re seeing a culture of secrecy permeate their offices and filter down to the public sector as well.”
Among the report’s suggestions were improvements to the Tasmanian Integrity Commission.
But the Liberals’ Guy Barnett denied the commission was a “toothless tiger”.
“The Integrity Commission has an important role to play ... they are achieving the objectives for which they were established,” he said.
Budget papers show the Integrity Commission’s budget will fall from $ 2.73m in 2020- 21 to $ 2.65m in 2021- 22.
And Mr Barnett said a report on electoral donations was on the way.
Greens leader Cassy O’Connor disagreed. “On the evidence and on multiple fronts, politically, Tasmania is the secret state,’’ she said.
“We have the most refusals of Right to Information disclosures, the weakest political donations laws and a government that misleads and routinely buries truth in spin.”
Independent Clark MHR Andrew Wilkie on Monday told federal parliament Tasmania’s record on transparency was poor.
“You just need to look at the 2018 state election where the Tasmanian Liberal Party spent a record $ 4m to ensure its re- election, but we simply don’t know where all of that money came from,” he said.
“Then there’s a refusal of the Premier to tell us which businesses, shared in the $ 26m COVID hardship grant program.”