Coroner & Legal
Integrity on hold
The establishment of Tasmania’s first Integrity Commission has been delayed until later this year.
The Attorney General Lara Giddings has told a Budget Estimates hearing the commission that the Chief Executive, Barbara Etta, is the only appointment so far.
She says there is still no Chief Commissioner or board members.
“We’ve now had some delays in terms of getting all the people around the table to go through and interview those candidates,” she said.
The Attorney General says the complaints handling system has also not been established and building works at the Intergrity Commission office have to be undertaken.
She says the new start date is October 1.
It was supposed to start receiving submissions on Thursday.
Meanwhile the Premier has revealed that Justice Department head Lisa Hutton helped appoint the Integrity Commission’s Chief Executive, Barbara Etter.
Greens MP Kim Booth asked David Bartlett in a Parliamentary estimates hearing this morning whether Ms Hutton should have been on the selection panel, given contrary findings against her by an Upper House committee last year.
Mr Bartlett says he does not agree with the committee’s findings, and Ms Hutton’s involvement was entirely appropriate.
HEAD OF INTEGRITY COMMISSION SELECTION PROCESS CONCERNS
Undermining Integrity of the Commission Itself
Kim Booth MP
Greens Member for Bass
The Tasmanian Greens today described as “shocking” Labor’s apparent failure to understand the basic principles of natural justice and the importance of public perception regarding procedural fairness, following revelations that persons named in the Legislative Council Select Committee on Public Sector Appointments, which could be referred to the Integrity Commission, were required to participate on the selection panel for the Head of the Commission.
Greens Member for Bass, Kim Booth MP, said that Premier Bartlett’s admission that the Secretary of Justice was a member of the panel selecting the Head of the new Integrity Commission, has both potentially placed that individual in an invidious position as well as casting a cloud over the Integrity Commission itself in the eyes of the public.
Mr Booth also pointed to the fact that the Justice Minister Lara Giddings agreed with his question this morning that the findings of the Legislative Council Select Committee on Public Sector Appointments are likely to be referred to, and considered by, the Integrity Commission.
“A report by the Parliamentary Select Committee investigation, which found that the Secretary of Justice committed significant breaches, is likely to be referred to the Integrity Commission, so why has Labor placed the Secretary in this position of participating on the panel that has selected the Head of that same Integrity Commission?” said Mr Booth.
“Only under Tasmanian Labor would a person named in a Parliamentary Committee Report which, by the Attorney-General’s own admission could in all likelihood be submitted to the Integrity Commission, be put in such an invidious position.”
“This is poor process on the part of the Justice Minister, and fails to provide natural justice to any involved.”
“In the world of public perception this could undermine the integrity of the Commission itself, which would be a very unfortunate and avoidable outcome,” Mr Booth said.