Rockliff keeps TasTAFE report under wraps in latest stonewalling effort

 Minister has potentially breached Act by hiding TasTAFE annual report
 Secrecy around scandal goes to new level
 Transparency becomes a hopeless joke under Education Minister
The Hodgman Liberal Government is deliberately keeping the annual report from TasTAFE hidden in its latest bid to keep secret the scandal rocking the training institution.
Shadow Education Minister Michelle O’Byrne said it was disgraceful Minister Jeremy Rockliff had deliberately avoided a deadline to table the report in Parliament this week, breaching the TAFE Act at the same time he used determined, underhanded tactics to keep details of the scandal in his bottom drawer.
“The Minister is required to table this report four months after the end of the financial year – which was yesterday – and he deliberately did not,” Ms O’Byrne said.
“By sitting on this report for nothing other than political reasons, he is in breach of the Act.
“And the reason he wants to keep it hidden until the end of the week – avoiding the scrutiny of the Parliament – is because it contains details of the lucrative payout given to the former TAFE CEO.
“Tasmanians should not be surprised that Mr Rockliff is resolute in his determination to keep the details from them given his behaviour and the government’s manipulative efforts on this scandal from the get-go.
“Mr Rockliff is now responsible for a whole new level of secrecy, refusing to release the findings and recommendations of an audit into the sorry affair, despite promising to.
“He and the government have blocked Right To Information requests at every turn, prompting a leading RTI expert to openly accuse them of stonewalling.
“Clearly there are things the government doesn’t want Tasmanians to know.
“Clearly, they are determined that all of the sordid details will be kept under wraps until after the next state election because they don’t want Tasmanians to know they were complicit in this disgraceful saga.”
Michelle O’Byrne MP Shadow Education Minister