Christine Milne asked Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Joe Ludwig, whether he has referred to the Australian Federal Police the National Audit Office’s assessment that millions of dollars in funding was misused in the Voluntary Exit Grants Program for forestry contractors.
Please follow link for audio:
http://greensmps.org.au/content/questions-without-notice/christine-milne-senate-question-voluntary-exit-grants-program
• Friday on TT: Corrupt or incompetent: The $44 million question
• David Obendorf: Liberals call for an Parliamentary Inquiry into grant payments to forestry contractors
This week Peter Gutwein, Liberal MP for Bass will bring a motion to the House of Assembly calling on his parliamentary colleagues to support a Lower House Inquiry into the recent revelations of anomalies in the allocations of Commonwealth government grants to forestry harvesting and processing contractors exiting the Tasmanian industry.
This State inquiry would complement a motion to be put in the Senate today by Australian Greens leader, Christine Milne to set up a Senate Committee of Inquiry.
The Liberals in the Lower House will need the support of the majority of that house which means support from the Tasmanian Greens MPs or Labor MPs.
• Kim Booth: Greens move for inquiry into contractor payments “There are potentially even more serious questions over Forestry Tasmania’s decision in January 2012 to send unauthorised letters of support for the applicants’ exit from the public native forestry industry.” “Given that this points to a potential intention to defraud the public purse, we need decisive action to bring some transparency and restore public confidence in this process.” “The Auditor’s report found that the exit payments program had not only failed to properly ensure the exit of contractors from the industry, but failed to significantly reduce the wood being harvested.” “This inquiry will get to the bottom of whether some of this taxpayer money earmarked for restructuring the forest industry has been rorted and wasted.” “We are talking about millions of dollars in public money set aside under the IGA to bring about a much needed transition in the forest industry,” Mr Booth said. More here
