SUE NEALES Mercury

THE head of the Environment Department had his $280,000-a-year job deal renewed the day before the department was axed. Read more here

Meanwhile,

AUSTRALIAN
David Bartlett to shield former Premier Paul Lennon from Gunns inquiry
David Bartlett to block scrutiny of Paul Lennon over mill

BARTLETT HYPOCRISY OVER DEPHA SECRETARY MORAL OBLIGATION
One Rule for Departmental Secretaries, Another for Rest of Public Sector
Nick McKim MP
Greens Leader
Thursday, 21 May 2009

www.tas.greens.org.au
The Tasmanian Greens today accused Premier David Bartlett of hypocrisy over his claim to have a moral obligation to DEPHA Secretary Scott Gadd which prevented him from withdrawing an offer to extend his contract, while at the same time Mr Bartlett has kept open the possibility of changing the law to make it easier to sack Tasmanian public servants.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP said that Mr Bartlett’s failure to seek advice from the Solicitor General on any legal obligations on the government as a result offering a contract extension to Mr Gadd showed an ad hoc decision making process from a government prone to panic

“Under Mr Bartlett there is clearly one rule for Mr Gadd, and another rule for the rest of the public service.”

“If a moral obligation is enough to ensure an extension of Mr Gadd’s contract on the basis of a previous agreement, then Mr Bartlett should not be threatening to retrospectively change the State Service Act to make it easier to sack public servants. Unless he’s a complete hypocrite, of course.”

Mr McKim said that Mr Bartlett’s failure to disclose exactly when he first considered abolishing DEPHA raises issues around what information, if any, was before Cabinet when it made its decision.

“Surely Cabinet wouldn’t simply wake up one morning and make a panicked decision to abolish an entire government department. We need to know whether there was any advice considered, and if so, what it was

Mr McKim said that the only way for Mr Bartlett to clear up issues around Mr Gadd’s contract extension is for him to table all relevant documents in the House of Assembly, including all relevant correspondence between Mr Bartlett’s office, DPAC, and Mr Gadd.