Bartlett … and public deceit

Ben Quin
Matters raised in the Harriss committee report reinforce my view that the Bartlett Government remains entangled in a culture of allowable public deceit that has been gestating for more than a decade in Tasmania.

As evidence, I offer that Bryan Green and Steve Kons would have been evicted from any government with even a shred of belief in the reasonable standards of public transparency and accountability expected under our Westminster system of democracy. That they were not evicted raises deep suspicion of a sticky web of moral failings binding the loyalty between the Members of the Bartlett government.

This situation must not be allowed to continue.

If Premier Bartlett is to make good on his promise of transparency, he must respond to the Harriss committee’s report. He must do so before taking any further contentious legislation forward in Parliament, particularly the proposed amendments to the State planning scheme.

Or will he further sacrifice transparency and trust in the Tasmanian Parliament pursuing a deceitful means to guarantee a pipe line for a pulp mill?

As for the weak-tea that substitutes as a State opposition, it is too much to expect them to raise the tough questions, or hold Mr. Bartlett to his promise. They have allowed themselves to become enmeshed in the same web.

Ben Quin

Triabunna 7190