Media release – Dean Winter MP, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, 1 June 2023
D-Day to table stadium details has arrived – but will the Premier wriggle out?
D-Day has arrived for the Rockliff minority Government to produce documents and departmental advice regarding its AFL deal and the Macquarie Point Stadium.
Last week in Parliament, the House carried a motion (#29 in attached document) ordering Premier Rockliff to table:
- All signed agreements and documents relating to the AFL agreement by Thursday 1 June 2023
- All departmental and departmental-commissioned assessments, advice and reports relating to the Macquarie Point Stadium by Thursday 1 June 2023
- All minor redactions from the signed agreements and documents be made confidentially available to all MPs at the earliest opportunity
Tasmanians should remember that this is a Government that has made such an artform out of secrecy, that two of its members quit in protest last month.
This begs the question – will the Premier come good on his requirement to table all of the assessments, advice and reports?
Or will he try and wriggle out and continue his secrecy agenda?
Media release – Kristie Johnston MP, independent Member for Clark, 1 June 2023
Johnston Questions Macquarie Point Deal Gag
Today I asked the Premier if he intended to gag members of parliament by insisting that any minor redactions they are provided with regarding the Macquarie Point deal be kept confidential.
This would mean that elected Members, effectively, will not be able to ask questions of the government or fully represent the people of Tasmania in the debate over the stadium proposal.
This is preposterous. I, for one, will not accept any “confidential” documents that would restrict my job as a member of parliament.
I will not agree or be party to secrecy.
The Premier did not address my concerns.
Following is the text of my question:
Premier, today you are required by a motion of this house, to table all signed agreements and documents relating to the AFL agreement and all departmental and departmental commissioned assessments, advice and reports relating to the Macquarie Point Stadium.
As has been the hallmark of your government, when it comes to providing information to the public, I expect there to be significant parts of this material redacted. You are also required to provide “minor redactions” – whatever minor redactions means – to all MPs on a confidential basis at the earliest opportunity.
Premier, are you really going to insist on MPs keeping this information confidential when it is effectively a gag and a fetter on the important work that MPs should be doing in holding you accountable when you are spending a billion dollars of Tasmanians money?
And is it your intention to try and tarnish every MP with the same odious secrecy that is rife in your government, leaving ordinary Tasmanians in the dark again about your dodgy deal?
Media release – Dean Winter MP, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, 1 June 2023
Rockliff wriggles out of requirement to table AFL deal advice
Tasmanians have received yet another serving of the Rockliff minority Government’s signature dish – deception and dishonesty.
Predictably, Premier Jeremy Rockliff has failed to obey the order of the Parliament and table “all departmental and departmental-commissioned assessments, advice and reports relating to the Macquarie Point Stadium by Thursday 1 June 2023.”
All the Premier did was table a number of documents that were already available online, and a few other consultant reports from 2022 that were commissioned to inform the government’s business case.
In addition to letting down the House, he has betrayed the trust of Lara Alexander, who amended the motion requiring departmental advice to be provided.
We know there is advice. Some of it has been listed as rejected in Right to Information requests we have made.
The advice exists. The Premier is willfully ignoring Lara Alexander and the House of Assembly’s order.
The weak, unstable, minority Liberal Government is dishonest, evasive and lacking transparency – so much so that two of its members quit last month.
Media release – Cassy O’Connor MP, Greens Leader, 2 June 2023
— untitled —
The Liberals lost control of the House last night because they can’t shake their old habitat of secrecy and dishonesty.
Their refusal to accept the will of Parliament, which ordered the production of stadium documents including departmental advice, is bringing them undone.
Tasmanians have the right to see all the relevant stadium documentation.
The Premier and his ministers are not coping with being in minority. Tasmanians need them to wake up to the reality of their changed parliamentary circumstance.
In the four years of the Labor Green government not once did government lose control of the House.
Media release – Dean Winter MP, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly, 3 June 2023
Rockliff not off the hook for welching on AFL advice requirement
If Premier Jeremy Rockliff thought his feeble excuses for not providing all the relevant departmental advice regarding the AFL got him off the hook, he’s got another thing coming.
Tasmanians deserve to know all the information about the Premier’s secret deal with the AFL, and Labor won’t be giving up on uncovering the details.
We’ll be following it up in Budget Estimates next week, and we will seek to hold the Premier in contempt of parliament when sitting resumes on 20 June.
We know Treasury has provided advice regarding the AFL and stadium deals, and we want to know why Premier Rockliff is keeping it a secret.
The Premier is claiming the Treasury advice and other departmental advice are cabinet in confidence, but it’s clear the AFL deal and the stadium never went through cabinet in the first place.
Jeremy Rockliff’s days are clearly numbered as Premier.
After this week’s parliamentary performance – which saw him lurch from mistake to mistake – even his most loyal supporters must be asking whether he’s the right person for the job.
