Media release – Independent Member for Lyons, John Tucker MP; Independent Member for Bass, Lara Alexander MP, 22 June 2023
Independent members welcome Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s announcement for a consultative approach to enable transparency in relation to the Cabinet-in-Confidence Macquarie Point Stadium documents
In response to Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s recent letter to the Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Greens, and the independent Members of the House of Assembly, the independent Members express their support for a more consultative approach while highlighting the long-overdue nature of this action.
The Premier’s letter came after Tuesday’s motion by Labor, and Wednesday’s motion by the Greens, requesting transparency around reports and advice from Government agencies which remain hidden behind the veil of cabinet confidentiality.
The independent Members stress that though the Department of Premier and Cabinet will be tasked with seeking independent legal advice, to review the rules governing Cabinet-in-Confidence documents, the resulting report and recommendations, which will be brought back to the House of Assembly on August 8, 2023, must be approved by Parliament.
Independent Member for Lyons, Mr John Tucker, said that all Members of Parliament, regardless of party affiliation, must have the opportunity to provide input into the new rules – regarding Cabinet-in-Confidence document disclosures – as they will be the ones working within the new rules over future parliaments.
“As the Rockliff Government embarks upon this overdue consultative journey, Mrs Alexander, other Members of the House, and I urge them to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are included in the decision-making process. By incorporating input from qualified and respected members of the legal fraternity, the Clerk of the House of Assembly, and the Solicitor-General, the resulting proposal will be robust and comprehensive,” Mr Tucker said.
“As independent Members, we firmly believe that the abuse of Cabinet-in-Confidence as a mechanism to withhold information or impede its release must come to an immediate halt. The government’s responsibility lies within the Parliament, not as an alternative to it. It was never the intention of the Westminster system of government that it should operate autonomously and independent of its obligations to Parliament,” Mr Tucker added.
The independent Member for Bass, Lara Alexander, said that her training as a Certified Practising Accountant and extensive working experience in governance and risk management, informed her that no organisation, which valued integrity, transparency, and social licence, functions independently of its board or shareholders.
“The government, as the operational wing of the Parliament, must be accountable to its board (the Parliament) and its shareholders (the people of the state). The Rockliff Government appears to have lost sight of this fundamental principle. We demand businesses jump through hoops when it comes to governance, risk management, and financial liquidity; so why should we expect anything less from Government?” Mrs Alexander asked.
“The Labor opposition, the Greens, and the independent Members have played a crucial role in holding the government accountable, dragging it back to the reality of its responsibilities. The current situation highlights the urgent need to restore a process where the government is answerable to the Parliament and the people it represents.
“As independent Members holding the government to account on behalf of the Parliament, we have asked repeatedly for an end to the government’s habit of drip-feeding documents for scrutiny and retaining them under the guise of Cabinet-in-Confidence. It is time to restore faith in the democratic process and uphold the principles of accountability, transparency, and open governance,” Mrs Alexander said.
Media release – Josh Willie MLC, Shadow Minister for Sport, 23 June, 2023
Premier confirms AFL deal didn’t go through cabinet
At around 8pm last night, in one of the last parliamentary acts before the shield of a six-week break, Premier Jeremy Rockliff finally confirmed that his dodgy AFL deal didn’t go before cabinet.
He was forced by the Parliament to produce a list of documents pertaining to cabinet deliberations about the stadium which contained one glaring omission – the AFL deal.
It’s becoming more and more obvious the Premier’s cabinet is split over the stadium, so you can see why he didn’t show them the deal.
It’s such a bad deal he was clearly worried it would have been shot down, or even worse for the Premier, that he would lose more members of his party.
The reality is this deal exposes Tasmania to so much financial risk that it was reckless for him to make a captain’s call on it. Despite this, we now know he forged ahead anyway.
Confirmation the deal didn’t go through cabinet also shines a spotlight on the performance of a number of Ministers, including the Premier, in Budget Estimates earlier this month.
On multiple occasions Ministers refused to answer questions regarding the deal, using the excuse it was cabinet-in-confidence. Now we know the deal didn’t go through cabinet, this excuse is about as flimsy as this minority government’s future.
After ten years in office, Premier Rockliff’s minority government is out of people, ideas and excuses.
The Premier can run, but he can’t hide, and Parliament will hold him accountable.
Media release – Dean Winter MP, Shadow Minister for Economic Development, 23 June 2023
Premier (again) confirms dud AFL deal was a captain’s call in embarrassing performance
Premier Jeremy Rockliff has been all out at sea in an embarrassing performance in today’s Public Accounts Committee hearing.
Despite trying to avoid the question multiple times, Mr Rockliff was finally forced to admit that the first time he provided an update of the AFL deal to his Cabinet was the day before it was signed.
To make things worse, he only provided a verbal update, and couldn’t explain why he didn’t think it was necessary to present the written agreement to his Cabinet colleagues.
To make things even worse, he revealed that there was no Treasury or legal advice provided to the Cabinet.
The best comfort the Premier could give that his Cabinet was informed, was that he made them aware of ‘aspects of the deal’.
Tasmanians should remember that this is a deal which comes with massive financial risk for the state, and for the Premier to make it a captain’s call off the corner of his desk is unthinkably reckless.
This is an extraordinary failure of responsible governance from a Premier and Government that has clearly run out of steam.
Rosalie Woodruff MP, Greens Transparency spokesperson, 23 June 2023
Stadium Recklessness Beggars Belief
More than a month after the Rockliff Government was plunged into minority, the Tasmanian people have finally been given a small glimpse of what advice the Liberals relied on in deciding to build a billion-dollar stadium in Hobart.
After a week of lost votes on the floor of Parliament, the Premier has been forced into the bare minimum of transparency, tabling a list detailing the documents he’s refused to release due to claimed Cabinet confidentiality.
One look at this list shows why Jeremy Rockliff had been so resistant to being open with Tasmanians. The list reveals just how irresponsible the decision to build the stadium really was.
This will be Tasmania’s most expensive infrastructure project ever. It requires hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, and the Tasmanian people will be saddled with the inevitable cost of any budget blowouts.
Despite this, if we take Jeremy Rockliff’s word, we now know the government got no advice from the Department of Treasury and Finance on this huge decision.
There is no justification for failing to ask for an assessment or advice on the stadium’s potential impact on the State’s finances. We’re talking about huge sums of public funds and a massive increase to the state’s debt – but apparently the Liberals thought the expertise of our Treasury officials wasn’t needed.
Given this reckless approach, it’s no wonder Treasury identified the stadium debt as a key risk to this year’s State Budget.
Tasmanians expect their hard-earned taxes to be spent responsibly, but instead the Liberals are playing fast and loose with the public purse in their reckless attempt to gift the AFL a billion-dollar bauble.
Editor’s note: There’s kind of a timeline emerging. The AFL say they formally insisted on the stadium from Dec 2021. Then Premier Gutwein announced the commitment to a stadium in March 2022. The documents appear to show that there was no Treasury advice prior to committing to a hundreds of millions of dollars to the project by signing the deal with the AFL. None of the deal was formally made public until well after the signing and after much political pressure.
These images are as posted today 23 June by the so-called Rockliff Team Media account on Twitter.
