Sue Neales Mercury
But many questions in the whole affair remain worryingly unanswered. They include:Why did Mr Kons lie, or feel the need to lie, about why he had changed his mind about Mr Cooper’s appointment?Was Ms Hornsey acting alone, as personal payback or revenge, when she stopped Mr Cooper becoming a magistrate?Why was Mr Kons influenced at all by Ms Hornsey’s directive to drop Mr Cooper and why did he feel that he had no choice but to follow her instructions?Did Premier Paul Lennon dispatch Ms Hornsey — who had acted as his political go-between many times in the past — to order Mr Kons not to make Mr Cooper a magistrate. Premier Lennon has dodged, evaded and refused to answer the last question many times in the past three days — both in Parliament and outside. The closest he came to answering properly was on Thursday, when he said he had “played no role in Simon Cooper’s (name) not going forward as recommendation (to Cabinet)”.
But the Tasmanian public needs — and deserves — better answers than that. Because the two alternatives are dire. Either Tasmania’s public service chief in Linda Hornsey was out of control and acting like a crazed dictator in ordering who would or would not become a magistrate at her personal whim. Or the Premier was directly involved and a cover-up has taken place within the Government over serious and improper interference in the state’s judicial appointments. Read more here
