Some other choice quotes:
“Five weeks before the GBE hearings, I’d heard Michael Roberts (Ken Bacon’s senior private secretary) arguing with Rod Scott* (Mr Lennon’s senior private secretary) about getting a copy (of the Treasury report on Spirit III) …
“I know my office staff got a call from Rod Scott asking him whether his minister (Bacon) really wanted to be a minister” …
He has no doubt he was the victim of a power play within the Government, partly because he was determined to speak his mind …
His view hasn’t changed: “I’ve always been told my honesty will be my undoing someday, and maybe it has.” If things seemed at a low ebb for the embattled minister they suddenly became much worse, when an incident involving the minister and Michael Roberts that had occurred last November suddenly became public. He has no doubt that the issue was leaked months later to further undermine his standing. It worked …
(*and a former Editor of The Examiner, and years ago, Election Campaign Director for Labor)
Mmm … leaks, leaks, leaks from the very heart of State Government leading to the expiration of the target species, whether a Governor or a Minister … seems to be a pattern here?
Earlier:
Hag, Paul and RBTs
The Pale Shadow of Machiavelli
The Sunday Tasmanian report: Bacon puts Lennon in gun
And:
What Rene reckons:
RENE HIDDING, MHA
Leader of the State Opposition
Saturday May 7, 2005Bacon bombshells demand explanation
Former Tourism Minister Ken Bacon has today confirmed that the State Labor Government was hopelessly divided in its support for Spirit III and the reason that the service’s future was left in limbo for so long was because the Premier simply could not make a decision.
And it has now been proven that the Premier treated Parliamentary scrutiny committee hearings with contempt in a bid to take the heat off his own inability to make a decision his office telling the Tourism Minister not to say anything about Spirit III at GBE hearings, and deliberately withholding information from him.
Opposition Leader Rene Hidding said Mr Bacon had also provided a telling insight into a State Government where tensions are massively strained because of plummeting support for the arrogant and incompetent Premier Lennon.
“Premier Paul Lennon will be incandescent with rage that Mr Bacon has spoken out and provided such a fly on the wall account of the dysfunctional nature of the Lennon Labor Government as evidenced by the way it handled the future of Spirit III,” Mr Hidding said.
“The State Liberals always suspected that the reason the Premier took so long to make a decision on the future of Spirit III was because he simply could not make one. Ken Bacon has confirmed this, along with the fact that the Premier flip-flopped all over the place, one day siding with our tourism industry, and the next with his powerful head of Treasury, Don Challen.
“But this flip-flopping almost pales into insignificance when compared with contempt for which the Premier treated Parliament.
“If it is true that Ken Bacon was told by the Premier’s office to say nothing at GBE hearings on the future of Spirit III, then that would be a complete abuse of the Parliamentary process and an absolute scandal.
“The Premier must also explain why he refused to provide his Tourism Minister with a copy of the Treasury Report into the future of Spirit III.
“To deliberately withhold information from a Parliamentary scrutiny committee is a disgrace and more evidence of how arrogant, secretive and incompetent the Lennon Labor Government has become.
“It is also becoming increasingly divided, as worried Labor MHAs realise that the Premier is completely out of touch with the community.”
Mr Hidding said the Premier must today publicly explain whether his office instructed Mr Bacon to let the TT Line chair and chief executive handle questions at GBE hearings and he must also explain why Mr Bacon was not given a copy of the Treasury report.
