Premier, Archer offer inconclusive answers

PREMIER Will Hodgman has delivered another of the Government’s cryptic answers to questions over the use of lawyers as police informants.

A Royal Commission has been established in Victoria after it was revealed that state’s police force recruited a criminal lawyer as an informant during the Melbourne gangland wars. The case has put hundreds of criminal convictions in doubt.

Asked whether the practice had happened in Tasmania, Mr Hodgman did not say “no”.

“I have no advice as to that having occurred here,” he told reporters.

Attorney-General Elise Archer has also given a strangely opaque answer on the same practice — which was described as “reprehensible” by the High Court of Australia.

“I am not aware of any particular circumstance that would give rise to a suspicion that police have adopted, or are adopting practices, similar to those referred to the High Court,” she said.

Greens Justice spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said Tasmanians deserved better.

“In lay terms, this means [Ms Archer] hasn’t asked a di- rect question to the Tasmania Police about the matter, and so she hasn’t been given a definitive answer," Ms Woodruff said. “The gravity of this potentially serious threat to Tasmania’s justice system requires Attorney-General Archer to urgently seek a definite assurance from Tasmania Police.”