Green eyeing councils’ $330m cash reserves? Man-up, Green told

Hobart City Council has received an intriguing letter from Deputy Premier Bryan Green which intimates that the cash-strapped State Government has its eyes on state councils’ cash reserves … which could be as high as $330 million.

Unlike the State Government, councils are required to set aside cash reserves.

It seems that Deputy Premier Green was alerted to this little cash cow after a reference from the Auditor-General that councils’ hold “significant” cash reserves.

In other words councils over the years have done the right thing. Putting a bit of cash away for a rainy day. Whereas State Labor – from Lennon to Barlett – has simply raided every nook and cranny of cash it can find to prop up ailing state finances … as Tasmanian Times analyst John Lawrence has many times revealed, particularly here and here.

Deputy Green’s eyes must have lit up at the thought that here is another piggy bank to raid.

Hobart City Council’s finance committee meets tonight and on the agenda will be the letter from Deputy Green.

Hobart City Council has about $30 million in reserves – but most of it is already allocated anyway.

It is unclear whether the State Government has the power to simply take the money.

• Meanwhile former Premier Lennon has been predictably beating the drum about minority governments: ABC Online: Lennon remarks spark election call:

A former Labor Premier’s analysis of Tasmania’s economy has triggered another Opposition call for an early election.

“When it comes to minority government we have accepted the will of the people,” she said.

First published: 2012-06-19 06:30 PM

• Not true, says Deputy Green: But the Deputy Premier assures that is not the intention. “The Auditor-General concluded that councils are currently holding cash and financial investments well beyond the day-to-day requirements,” he said. “It’s simply a matter of understanding what councils might be doing with that cash on into the future so that we could coordinate from an infrastructure point of view with them.” Read more here

• Mercury: Small mercy on rates: HOBART ratepayers are facing a 4.9 per cent rate rise, a slightly smaller annual increase than usual. The rate jump, less than the council’s long-term plan of annual rises of 5 per cent, is likely to be ratified by Hobart City Council aldermen on Monday.

• ABC Online: Treasury loans to pay for redundancies

• And, the push to form a single super Hobart municipality has suffered a new blow, with another council rejecting the move: Mercury: Super council plans unravel:

Kingborough Mayor Graham Bury yesterday said his council rejected the key recommendation of a three-member independent expert panel that last year recommended formation of a greater Hobart council.

Under the recommendation, this single council would comprise the cities of Hobart and Glenorchy, Brighton municipality, and urban Clarence (with Richmond and surrounds moving into the Sorell municipality) and the urban part of Kingborough (excluding the Channel and Bruny Island which would be incorporated into Huon Valley municipality).

• and, Boss Fox says ‘get a dictator’

TRANSPORT magnate Lindsay Fox says Tasmania needs a democratic dictator to get the state back on track.

In Hobart to talk to business leaders yesterday, the self-made billionaire founder of Linfox urged the community to get behind mining projects and the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill or risk seeing the state end up with an unemployment rate of 30 per cent.

Mr Fox said the State Governments problem was that it was a minority government.

“The problem you have here is no different to the Federal Government you don’t have a controlling majority,” he said.

“You could do with a democratic dictator today, as could the Federal Government.

“Somebody like Lee Kuan Yew that turned a Third World country, Singapore, into the Zurich [Switzerland’s huge financial centre] of Asia. He was a determined man that got the will of the people prepared to work with him.”

Mercury here

• Ex-Premier Lennon has also been active elsewhere …

• FRESH COMMITMENT NEEDED TO 35 MEMBER HOUSE
Lennon Admits ‘Politically Expedient’ Mistake

The Tasmanian Greens today called on the Premier and the Opposition Leader to recommit to the written agreement to restore numbers in the House of Assembly to 35, which was signed by all three Leaders on behalf of their respective parties in September 2010.

Greens Leader Nick McKim MP was responding to reported comments by former Premier Paul Lennon admitting that the original decision to cut numbers was a ‘politically expedient’ mistake.

“Mr Lennon’s call to restore the Tasmanian House of Assembly to 35 members is staggering, given that he was one of the original architects of the cut aimed at getting rid of the Greens,” Mr McKim said.

“He should now apologise to the Tasmanian people for his role in stitching up a deal to cut the numbers, which even he now admits was ‘politically expedient’ and has undermined democracy in Tasmania.”

“The most important thing now is for Lara Giddings and Will Hodgman to both recommit to the agreement to restore the numbers to 35, which was signed by all three party leaders in September 2010.”

“It is now broadly recognised that the Labor and Liberal parties colluded in 1998 to cut the numbers for their own perceived political gain, resulting in a broken House of Assembly which is not working efficiently or effectively for Tasmanians.”

“Last year Mr Lennon’s former Cabinet Minister David Llewellyn admitted that whole thing was a politically motivated attempt to get rid of the Greens, a move that has quite clearly failed.”

• MINISTER GREEN MUST STAND UP TO FORESTRY TAS
Ministerial Directive Needed to Bring FT to Heel

The Tasmanian Greens today called on the Minister for Forests Bryan Green to stand up to Forestry Tasmania and issue a Ministerial Directive – based on the one recently sent to TasPorts – that sets out the Government’s expectation that the agency’s actions comply with Government policy.

Greens Forestry spokesperson Kim Booth MP said that the Minister admitted in Budget Estimates that, following the signing of the IGA, Forestry Tasmania had been radically extending its sawlog contracts and potentially exposing taxpayers to a Commonwealth buyback under the IGA.

“It’s now on the public record that Forestry Tasmania has been aggressively locking in and extending supply contracts in defiance of the intent of the IGA and regardless of whether the timber is even available or in demand,” Mr Booth said.

“It’s crazy is that sawmillers who only just signed these extended sawlog contracts could now be eligible for a buy-back by the Commonwealth under the IGA.”

“How can this have been allowed to happen?”

“This is the story of an agency that is defiantly renewing and extending contracts at a time of market chaos and delicate negotiations, just to blackmail the taxpayer and wreck the forest peace process.”

“The Infrastructure Minister recently issued a joint Ministerial Statement of Expectation with the Treasurer to the Tasmanian Ports Corporation setting out the Government’s broad policy expectations and requirements for TasPorts, and there’s no reason Forestry shouldn’t receive the same directive.”

“The Minister’s failure to address my question in Parliament this morning is disappointing. It tells a story of a Minister who appears to be unable or unwilling to properly rein in the behaviour of this rogue agency,” Mr Booth said.